EISCATEUROPEAN INCOHERENT SCATTERSCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATIONANNUAL REPORT 2011

EISCAT Radar Systems
Location

Tromsø

Geographic coordinates69◦ 35′ N
19◦ 14′ E
77◦ 30′ N
66◦ 12′ N

Geomagnetic inclination
Invariant latitude
Band
Frequency (MHz)Maximum bandwidth (MHz)Transmitter
Channels
Peak Power (MW)Average power (MW)
Pulse duration (ms)Phase coding
Minimum interpulse (ms)Digital processing
Antenna
Feed system
System temperature (K)Gain (dBi)
Polarisation

KirunaSodankylä

Longyearbyen67◦ 52′ N
67◦ 22′ N
78◦ 9′ N20◦ 26′ E
26◦ 38′ E
16◦ 1′ E76◦ 48′ N
76◦ 43′ N
82◦ 6′ N
64◦ 27′ N
63◦ 34′ N
75◦ 18′ N
VHF
UHF
UHF
UHF
UHF
224
929
929
929
500
3
8
8
8
10
1 klystron2 klystrons
16 klystrons
6
6
6
6
12
1.6
2.0
1.0
0.20
0.25
0.25
0.001–2.0
0.001–2.0
0.0005–2.0
binarybinarybinarybinarybinary1.0
1.0
0.1
14 bit ADC on IF, 32 bit complex autocorrelation functions, parallel channels
Antenna 1
Antenna 2
parabolic cylinder
parabolic dishparabolic dishparabolic dishparabolic dishparabolic dish120 m × 40 m steerable
32 m steerable
32 m steerable
32 m steerable
32 m steerable
42 m fixedline feed
Cassegrain
Cassegrain
Cassegrain
Cassegrain
Cassegrain
128 crossed dipoles
250
90
50
50
80
65
46
48.1
48.1
48.1
42.5
44.8
circularcircularany
anycircularcircular

EISCAT Heating Facility in TromsøFrequency range: 4.0 MHz to 8.0 MHz, Maximum transmitter power: 12×0.1 MW, Antennas: Array 1 (5.5 MHz to
8.0 MHz) 30 dBi, Array 2 (4.0 MHz to 5.5 MHz) 24 dBi, Array 3 (5.5 MHz to 8.0 MHz) 24 dBi.
Additionally, a Dynasonde is operated at the heating facility.

Cover picture: Evidence of isotropic scattering from polar mesospheric summer echoes,
from the work by C. La Hoz et al.

CAT SSICE

CIATION
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EISCAT Scientific Association
2011

EISCAT, the European Incoherent Scatter Scientific Association, is established to conduct research on
the lower, middle and upper atmosphere and the ionosphere using the incoherent scatter radar technique.
This technique is the most powerful ground-based tool for these research applications. EISCAT is also
being used as a coherent scatter radar for studying instabilities in the ionosphere, investigating thestructure and dynamics of the middle atmosphere, studying meteors and as a diagnostic instrument inionospheric modification experiments with the heating facility.
There are fourteen incoherent scatter radars in the world, and EISCAT operates three of the higheststandard facilities. The EISCAT sites are located north of the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia. They consistof two independent radar systems on the mainland, together with a radar constructed on the islandof Spitzbergen in the Svalbard archipelago — the EISCAT Svalbard Radar (see sketch and operating
parameters on the inside of the front cover).
The EISCAT UHF radar operates in the 929 MHz band with a peak transmitter power of 2.0 MW,
and employs fully steerable 32 m parabolic dish antennas. The transmitter for this system and one of
the receivers are located in Tromsø (Norway). Receiving sites are also located in Kiruna (Sweden) andSodankylä (Finland), allowing for tri-static radar measurements.
The monostatic VHF radar in Tromsø operates in the 224 MHz band with a peak transmitter power of
1.6 MW, using a 120 m × 40 m parabolic cylinder antenna which is subdivided into four sectors. Thisantenna can be steered mechanically in the meridional plane from vertical to 60◦ north of the zenith;
limited east-west steering is also possible using alternative phasing cables.
The EISCAT Svalbard radar (ESR), located near Longyearbyen, operates in the 500 MHz band witha peak transmitter power of 1.0 MW, and employs a fully steerable parabolic dish antenna of 32 m
diameter and a fixed antenna, aligned with the local magnetic field, with a 42 m diameter. The highlatitude location of this facility is particularly aimed at studies of the cusp and the polar cap region.
The basic data measured with the incoherent scatter radar technique are profiles of electron density,
electron and ion temperatures and bulk ion velocity. Subsequent processing allows derivation of a wealthof further parameters, describing the ionosphere and neutral atmosphere. A selection of well-designed
radar pulse schemes are available to adapt the data-taking routines to many particular phenomena,
occurring at altitudes from about 50 km to above 2000 km. Depending on geophysical conditions, abest time resolution of less than one second and an altitude resolution of a few hundred meters can beachieved.
Operations of 3000 h to 4000 h each year are distributed between Common Programmes (CP) and Special Programmes (SP). At present, six well-defined Common Programmes are run regularly, for between
one and three days, typically about once per month, to provide a data base for long term synoptic studies.
A large number of Special Programmes, defined individually by Associate scientists, are run to support
national and international studies of both local and global geophysical phenomena.
Further details of the EISCAT system and its operation can be found in various EISCAT reports, including illustrated brochures, which can be obtained from EISCAT Headquarters in Kiruna, Sweden.

The investments and operational costs of EISCAT are shared between:
China Research Institute of Radiowave Propagation, Peoples Republic of China
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Germany
National Institute of Polar Research, Japan
Natural Environment Research Council, United Kingdom
Norges forskningsråd, Norway
Solar-Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University, Japan
Suomen Akatemia, Finland
Vetenskapsrådet, Sweden

4

Contents
EISCAT — from the Chairman’s perspective, fiscal year 2011

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EISCAT_3D

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Scientific highlights 2011
Ionospheric studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
First daytime thermospheric wind observation from a balloon-borne Fabry-Perot interferometer over Kiruna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Comparison of temporal fluctuations in the total electron content estimates from EISCATand GPS along the same line of sight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Variance of the vertical ion speed in the polar lower ionosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A study of traveling ionospheric disturbances and atmospheric gravity waves using EISCAT Svalbard Radar IPY-data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Fine structure of a sporadic sodium layer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Sporadic E layer observation and analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
EISCAT-Cluster observations of quiet-time near-Earth magnetotail fast flows and theirsignatures in the ionosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
On the statistical relation between ion upflow and naturally enhanced ion-acoustic lines .
Dependence of spectral width of ionospheric F region HF echoes on electric field . . . . .
Solar zenith angle dependence of plasma density and temperature in the polar cap ionosphere and low-altitude magnetosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Auroral studies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Separating and quantifying ionospheric responses to proton and electron precipitation
over Svalbard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Energy and flux variations across thin auroral arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
A statistical investigation of the Cowling channel efficiency in the auroral zone . . . . . .
Dynamics and characteristics of black aurora as observed by high resolution groundbased imagers and radar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Polar mesospheric summer echoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Evidence of isotropic scattering from PMSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
PMSE research highlights from German EISCAT users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
EISCAT VHF measurements of aspect sensitivity in the vicinity of polar mesosphericsummer echoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Majority of PMSE spectral widths at UHF and VHF are compatible with a single scattering mechanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dusty space plasma diagnosis using temporal behavior of polar mesospheric summer
echoes during active modification . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Statistical survey of electron temperature enhancements in heater modulated polar mesospheric summer echoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Active experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Temporal development of the magnetic zenith effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
EISCAT incoherent scatter radar measurements of artificial ionospheric modification at
sub-ms time scales . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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Alternative estimation of the RF-enhanced plasma temperature during SPEAR experiments 29
Scientific highlights from Russian EISCAT users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Unusually broadened HF radar spectra from heater-induced artificial plasma irregularities 32
Investigation of the HF heater induced effects in the ionosphere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Angular dependence of pump-induced bottom- and top-side ionospheric plasma turbulence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Heating induced temperature enhancement in the polar summer ionosphere . . . . . . . 36
Cosmic noise absorbtion changes due to radio heating of the D region ionosphere . . . . . 37
New radar techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Fractional baud-length coding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Meteor head echo polarization at 930 MHz studied with the EISCAT UHF HPLA radar . . 38
Joule heating near an auroral arc and ion-neutral collision frequency in the polar cap
E region . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
List of publications 2011

41

EISCAT Operations 2011

44

EISCAT organisational diagram 201148

Committee Membership and Senior Staff

49

Appendix: EISCAT Scientific Association Annual Report, 201151

The EISCAT Associates, December 2011

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Contact Information

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6

EISCAT — from the Chairman’s
perspective, fiscal year 2011
Slowly gliding closer to the possible realisationof EISCAT_3D and a third antenna on Svalbard
while still considering the needs of the current EISCAT system, the fiscal year 2011 contained many
important issues to deal with.
The information gathered in the EU funded projects EISCAT_3D Design Study (finished) and thecurrently ongoing EISCAT_3D Prepatory Phase
pictures a modular system where the total costfor construction and operation is dependent of thesize of the system to be designed. During the year
EISCAT decided that an appropriate aim for thecost would be approximately 1 000 000 000 SEK forconstruction with a yearly operational and administrative budget of approximately 70 000 000 SEK.
This decision made detailed strategy decisions
easier about what should be expected with regard
to associate funding, and the picture of the possible future system became easier to see. It wasalso agreed to have a look at the current agreement
and statues, with the aim to make it easier for thecurrent associates and possible new candidate associates to fund the system, creating a stable, butalso more dynamic, funding model for EISCAT.
This EISCAT agreement group started their workin 2011.
Concerning the intentions of the Chinese associates to contribute to EISCAT a third antenna for
the Svalbard site, the early stages of a feasibility
study continued. These activities were driven by
the consultant Arvid Øvergård, with the expenses
kindly covered by the Chinese associates. During

the year, the Svalbard community was informed
and asked for opinions about the plans and theNorwegian frequency authority was approached
for frequency allowances.
The current EISCAT mainland systems are operated with two different frequency ranges. The
VHF system (222.8 MHz to 225.4 MHz) is monostatic, while the UHF system (926.6 MHz to930.5 MHz) has tristatic capabilities. However, theUHF frequencies will soon be lost to mobile operators. In order to secure the tristatic mode ofoperation, a reliable and not too costly method toconvert the UHF receivers at Kiruna and Sodankylä has been developed by EISCAT personnel.
At the autumn meeting in Bonn, EISCAT Council
decided that EISCAT should convert the present
UHF receivers to VHF receivers.
The year 2011 was also the last year DFG (Germany) acted as an EISCAT associate. In their instruction, DFG can only finance research throughprojects and programmes, in contrast to infrastructure. During the years, DFG has sponsored a
programme with the German researchers. This
programme has now ended meaning that DFG
sadly has to withdraw from EISCAT. Efforts will
be made by EISCAT to be able to welcome the German research community again in the future.
In summary, 2011 was a year where many important decisions were made for a bright future,
though under heavy economical constraints.
Dr. Tomas Andersson
Chairperson, EISCAT Council

7

EISCAT_3D
This is a short report of the progress of the workin the EISCAT_3D Preparatory Phase project during 2011.

sites in Northern Scandinavia. The flexibility of
the new instrument requires new measurement
strategies and opens the radar observations to an
expanding user community.
EISCAT_3D will contribute to the growing fieldof research based on accumulating, handling andanalysing large data volumes for Earth system
studies. The fully working array will produce adata rate of several TB/s and the expected stored
data volume in the initial phase of operation will
be of the order of 1000 TB per year. Exploitationof its full potential requires collaboration with regional e-infrastructures and close connection to
global e-infrastructures for the environment.
EISCAT Scientific Association is the Coordinator of the EISCAT_3D Preparatory Phase project.
EISCAT is currently funded and operated by research councils of Norway, Sweden, Finland, Japan, China and the United Kingdom and has its
headquarters in Kiruna, Sweden. It runs a radarsystem on Svalbard and a system on the Northern Scandinavian mainland consisting of a maintransmitting and receiving radar site in Tromsø,
Norway, and receiving sites in Sodankylä, Finland, and Kiruna, Sweden. The latter mainlandsystem, that has successfully been producing incoherent scatter data for more than 30 years, will
be replaced by the new EISCAT_3D system. The
EISCAT host institutions actively participate in the
project.
The current Preparatory Phase, that started in
October 2010, aims to ensure that the project willreach a sufficient level of maturity so that the implementation of EISCAT_3D can begin immediately after its conclusion in September 2014.

Background of the Preparatory
Phase
The high-latitude atmosphere and ionosphereare critically important for the study of SolarTerrestrial relationships as well as the physicalprocesses and the coupling of the different altitude regions in the Earth’s atmosphere. The Arctic areas of Northern Europe provide a unique opportunity to observe this region from the groundwith instruments placed within a well-developed
infrastructure of observational facilities and research institutions. EISCAT_3D will be a worldleading international Research Infrastructure, using the incoherent scatter technique to study theatmosphere in the Scandinavian Arctic and to investigate how the Earth’s atmosphere is coupled tospace. EISCAT_3D will provide an advanced tool
for studying plasma physics phenomena in the atmosphere, a key atmospheric monitoring instrument for climate and space weather studies andan essential element in international global multiinstrument campaigns for studying the environment.
EISCAT_3D will consist of several phased-array
antenna sites for transmission of high-power radio
waves and reception of faint signals back-scatteredby charged particles in the atmosphere. Measuring and analysing the radio signal accurately
probes the composition and physical parametersof the upper atmosphere. Each antenna array willconsist of a large number of single antennas whose
individual signals are digitally manipulated andcombined to provide a cutting-edge atmosphericradar system. This will enable new types ofvolumetric imaging observations, multi-static observations, detailed studies on small scales, andquasi-continuous observations of the upper atmosphere. In order to reach the measurement objectives the radar will be distributed over several

Progress during the year
The Preparatory Phase is concerned with forming a consortium, procuring the financing, selecting the sites, preparing for the data handling, considering the scientific requirements and planning
construction and operation. For all these tasks
researchers and other stakeholders are involved.
8

The team responsible for the site surveys during 2011. From the left: “the ALIS bus”, Peter Bergqvist, Tarmo
Laakso and Lars-Göran Vanhainen.

The project actively involves the scientific user
community and all relevant documents can befound on the project website1 , the major fraction
being open to the public.
EISCAT Scientific Association will provide thebasis for the future EISCAT_3D consortium. The
current EISCAT Associates have stated their support for the new EISCAT_3D. A letter of intent
in order to support the EISCAT_3D project was
fixed by the Council in October, to be signed by
the current EISCAT Associates and possibly also
by potential new members of the association. EISCAT Council has formed a working group together with the project to negotiate a new consortium agreement for the EISCAT Association thatshould be more suitable for constructing and operating EISCAT_3D and for attracting new members. Procedures will also be implemented within
the research infrastructure to safeguard good scientific practice and to ensure the commitment toexcellent research.
To procure the finances, major investments will
be needed from several countries. The current
estimate of costs for EISCAT_3D that assumes a
total budget of 120 Me to be invested over five toeight years, needs to be confirmed based on de-tailed planning and site selection. Funding opportunities for research infrastructures for possible investment into EISCAT_3D in the coming
years are identified in Norway, Sweden and Japan.
The Finnish user community plans submitting a
proposal next autumn to include EISCAT_3D inthe national roadmap for research infrastructures.
Funding situations in China and the United Kingdom are currently explored. Several other countries are either actively pursuing research basedon EISCAT measurements or planning to do soin the near future. These are Belgium, Germany,
Ireland, Italy, Poland, Russia and Ukraine. Someof these countries currently consider possible future participation in the EISCAT_3D consortium.
The outreach activities of the project, conference
presentations by the project participants and the
EISCAT_3D project meetings are particularly important in this context.
The site selection makes progress, though therequirements for site location vary for the different measurement objectives and need to be balanced. The project has also realised that site selection would not only be based on scientific considerations. The site surveys, that are carried out by
the project, investigate the radio environment aswell as the local infrastructure conditions. These

1 www.eiscat3d.se

9can not be made during the Arctic winter whichconstrains the schedule to the summer. Allocations for the frequency range of the EISCAT_3D
system were obtained in Norway, but not in Finland and Sweden. Progress in frequency allocation can be made as soon as the sites are selected
and the first construction funding for the project isgranted.
Planning for the data handling covers issues
ranging from the direct connection of radar sites
to the internet to the maintenance of the data andits placement within the framework of international geospace observatories and environmental
research infrastructures. Some of the Work Packages related to data handling and data management have not formally started yet, since theyfor instance require knowledge of the detailed instrument performance and the radar sites. Nonetheless, some more general issues of data handling can be addressed by using the current EISCAT data and this approach is currently pursued. Preparatory work is also carried out in theframe of other projects. EISCAT, as Coordinatorof the EISCAT_3D Preparatory Phase, participates in consortia funded by the European Union
through Framework Programme 7: ENVRI is related to the common needs of ESFRI projects interms of data handling, storage and management.
ESPAS will facilitate user access to space weather
data from ground-based and satellite experiments.
COOPEUS that is currently under negotiation will
facilitate collaboration with US environmental research institutions for common data policies andstandards relevant to global research infrastructures in the environment field.

Cover of the first version of the EISCAT_3D Science
Case.

funding bodies it is important to clearly state theprimary objectives of the project and to emphasise the key scientific issues that focus on thosemeasurement capabilities of EISCAT_3D that are
unique: the capability of continuous observations,of both small and large scale observations and theflexibility of changing the modes in order to directly respond to observed phenomena.
Planning the construction and operation of the
new system requires a detailed instrument design.
The design planning is based on a previous Design
Study (funded within FP6) and on the long experience with the existing EISCAT radars. The
project also aims to make use of innovative theoretical studies in signal processing, radar coding, data handling and data analysis. This recent
progress is summarised in a handbook of measurement principles, whose initial version was prepared during the first months of the Preparatory
Phase for consideration during the planning. The
new instrument will carry out signal processing
using Software-Defined Radio (SDR) receiver systems. In order to use the aperture synthesis imaging radar technique with the new instrument,
simulations for optimal receiving outlier configuration were carried out and completed. A simple
double triangular configuration was suggested asa result of this work. While work on specific tech-

The scientific requirements have a major influence on the system design and for this a Science
Case is continuously revised in collaboration withthe present EISCAT user community and with prospective future users. Communication with thescientific user community is facilitated throughoutreach activities, conference presentations anda series of dedicated meetings organized by the
project. The website for EISCAT_3D has been online since March 2009 and is regularly maintained
and updated. A user account system on the website was introduced at the beginning of the project
and facilitates the close connection of the projectto the community. The project sets a high priority
on expanding the user base into the space weather
and middle atmosphere communities, which havenot been major users of EISCAT in the past. Nonetheless, discussions also showed that in orderto prepare competitive proposals to the national
10

nical tasks makes good progress, the results stillneed to be combined within an instrument design.
The project faces a wide range of expectations
from researchers and other stakeholders. User expectations are in some cases contradictory, ranging
from the desire to have a new system workable
as quickly as possible to the desire to design thesystem in a sophisticated way based on the resultsof mathematically rigorous considerations. Combined with some gaps in the technical work thatwas proposed in the original project plan and witha deficiency in available engineering workforce atthe project Coordinator, this has delayed the preparation of the instrument performance specification. This delay of a Deliverable in the project has
an impact on some of the technical Work Packages
and imposes uncertainties on budget and experiment description needed for the consortium negotiations. The project Coordinator approaches thisproblem with an additional recruitment planned
for next year and continued efforts to communicate with the user community. Further recruitments
are also envisioned later next year. Other delaysof Milestones and Deliverables have less impact
on the work plan. Delayed starts of some of theWork Packages have also required minor changes
in the project planning that will be compensatedby an intensified activity later in the project. The
project benefits from its location within a networkof well-developed observational facilities and research institutions that are very supportive of the
project. At the same time they have different expectations that have to be met in a way so that all
stakeholders are satisfied. To meet this challenge
the project Coordinator benefits from exchangeof experience, networking and training on managing international research infrastructures thatis offered by projects within the Framework Programme 7. Swedish Research Council will support the development of the project with a 7 MSEK
planning grant for 2012 and 2013 from its funding
programme for research infrastructures. A major
fraction of this funding is planned for negotiations
and organisational preparation of the project.

Expectations
The goal of the Preparatory Phase is to bring the
EISCAT Scientific Association in the position to be-

gin implementing the new infrastructure in 2014.
While not all of the Deliverables of the project
have yet been delivered on time, the reasons fordelays have been identified and measures havebeen taken to compensate for these delays so that
there is confidence within the project that the EISCAT_3D Preparatory Phase will end successfully.
Regional and national enterprises from a wide
range of industrial sectors are expected to participate in building the new system. The project expects that the EISCAT_3D data will be managed
in collaboration with the local e-infrastructure in
the Nordic countries. The Research Infrastructure
will be connected to universities and research institutions locally in Northern Scandinavia close to
the sites, and globally through the members of
the association and the international research community. EISCAT_3D will also provide young researchers and engineers the opportunity to gain
experience in the maintenance and handling of
huge data volumes and will introduce young scientists to environmental research on internationally competitive level.

Project partners
There are eight partners in the EISCAT_3D Preparatory Phase:• EISCAT Scientific Association (EISCAT)• University of Oulu (UOULU)• Luleå University of Technology (LTU)• Swedish Institute of Space Physics (IRF)• University of Tromsø (UiT)• Science & Technology Facilities Council(STFC)• Swedish Research Council (VR)• National Instruments Belgium NV (NI)The host institutions for the present EISCAT systems are Sodankylä Geophysical Institute (independent department of University of Oulu), University of Tromsø and Swedish Institute of Space
Physics.

11

Scientific highlights 2011
Ionospheric studies
First daytime thermospheric wind observation from a balloon-borne Fabry-Perot
interferometer over Kiruna
HIWIND (High altitude Interferometer WIND
Observation) is the first balloon Fabry-Perot interferometer (FPI) to achieve successful thermospheric wind measurement for both day andnight. By flying at ∼40 km altitude, HIWIND
avoids the high solar scattering background andenables daytime remote sensing of Doppler shift
in airglow for thermospheric wind observation.
During its first flight in June 2011 from Kiruna,(68◦ N, 65 MLAT), HIWIND observed persistentequatorward winds (Figure 1), while the NCARTIEGCM model predicted poleward winds on thedayside. Combined with simultaneous EISCAT
incoherent scatter radar observation, HIWIND
yielded a daytime Burnside factor value of 0.85
(Figure 1). HIWIND data appear to suggest thatupward vertical winds near the auroral oval may
be the cause for large differences between the FPI
measured and radar derived winds near midnight.

Figure 1: Winds in the magnetic meridian fromHIWIND and EISCAT. The green dots are EISCAT
derived winds with a Burnside factor of 0.85. The
blue dots are HIWIND observed winds. The red
dots are EISCAT winds after estimating the upward vertical wind effects.

vent the resolution of the mechanisms ultimately
responsible for given observations. The purposeof the experiment presented here was to compare
Q. Wu, et al., “First Daytime Thermospheric Wind ObTEC estimates from EISCAT and GPS measureservation from a balloon-borne Fabry-Perot interferoments. The EISCAT measurements were obtained
meter over Kiruna (68N)”, Geophys. Res. Lett. 39,
along the same line of sight of a given GPS satelL14104, doi:10.1029/2012GL052533, 2012.
lite observed from Tromsø. The present analyses
focused on the comparison of temporal fluctuComparison of temporal fluctuations in ations in the TEC between aligned GPS and EISthe total electron content estimates from CAT measurements. A reasonably good agreeEISCAT and GPS along the same line of ment was found between temporal fluctuations in
TEC observed by EISCAT and those observed bysighta co-located GPS ionospheric monitor along the
The impact of space weather events onto satel- same line of sight (Figure 2), indicating a contrilite based technologies (e.g. satellite navigation bution from structures at E and F altitudes mainly
and precise positioning) is typically quantified on onto the total TEC in the presence of ionisation enthe basis of the total electron content (TEC) and hancements possibly caused by particle precipitatemporal fluctuations associated with it. GNSS tion in the nighttime sector. The experiment sug(Global Navigation Satellite Systems) TEC meas- gests the great potential in the measurements to beurements are integrated over a long distance and performed by the future EISCAT_3D system, limthus may include contributions from different re- ited only in the localised geographic region to be
gions of the ionised atmosphere which may pre- covered.
12Figure 2: Temporal fluctuations in slant TEC along
the EISCAT (Tromsø, 12 December 2011) line ofsight as integrated from altitudes 70 km (blue),
150 km (red), 200 km (green) upwards until range
500 km. Temporal fluctuations in slant TEC from
PRN23 (dashed black) along the same direction are
shown as well. The temporal fluctuations are calculated over an interval of approximately 150 s.

Figure 3: Comparison of the vertical ion speed
variance between the theoretical predictions andthe observed result (open triangles).

B. Forte, et al., “Comparison of temporal fluctuations in
the total electron content estimates from EISCAT and
GPS along the same line of sight”, Ann. Geophys., IN
PRESS.

S. Oyama, et al., “Variance of the vertical ion speed
measured with the EISCAT UHF radar in the polar
lower ionosphere at Tromsø, Norway”, J. Geophys. Res.
116, A00K06, doi:10.1029/2010JA016129, 2011.

A study of traveling ionospheric disturbances and atmospheric gravity waves usVariance of the vertical ion speed in the ing EISCAT Svalbard Radar IPY-datapolar lower ionosphere
The vertical component of the ion velocity measured with the European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT) Tromsø UHF radar (69.6◦ N, 19.2◦ E) in thelower ionosphere (from 95 km to 130 km) was
found to be characterised by notably large variances at oscillation periods of 2 min to 8 min. Of
particular interest was the geomagnetic activity
dependence above ∼106 km, which showed larger
variances (100 m2 s−2 to 500 m2 s−2 ) during periods of geomagnetic disturbance than during quiet
periods. Below 106 km, the variance was less sensitive to the geomagnetic activity. Height profiles ofthe variance during the disturbed period showed
steep increases with heights above 106 km, thenreaching a peak at 120 km, where the ion gyrofrequency is equal to the modelled ion-neutral collision frequency. A theoretical prediction well reproduced the height profile for the geomagnetically disturbed period by assuming oscillations in
the meridional component of the electric field (Figure 3). The theoretical study suggested that theelectric field oscillation is a possible cause of large
variances of the vertical ion speed in the polar
lower ionosphere. However, below 106 km, othermechanisms were necessary.

Vlasov et al. (2011) presented a statistical study ofTraveling Ionospheric Disturbances (TIDs) as observed by the EISCAT Svalbard Radar (ESR) during the continuous IPY-run (March 2007 – February 2008) with field-aligned measurements. A
semi-automatic routine was developed for searching and extracting Atmospheric Gravity Wave
(AGW) activity. The collected data shows that
AGW-TID signatures (Figure 4) are common in thehigh-latitude ionosphere especially in the fieldaligned ion velocity data (244 cases of AGW-TID
signatures in daily records), but they can be observed also in electron density (26 cases), electron temperature (12 cases) and ion temperature(26 cases). During the IPY campaign (in solar minimum conditions) AGW-TID events appear more
frequently during summer months than during
the winter months. It remains a topic for future studies whether the observed seasonal variation is natural or caused by seasonal variationin the performance of the observational methodthat was used (AGW-TID signature may be more
pronounced in a dense ionosphere). In the AGWTID dataset the distribution of the oscillation periods has two peaks, one around 0.5 h to 0.7 h andthe other around 1.1 h to 1.3 h. The diurnal oc-

13ning of the SSL event was 6.4 × 1010 m−2 s−1 to
9.6 × 1010 m−2 s−1 . Dominant oscillation periods inthe wavelike structures were 7 min to 11 min at
95 km to 98 km and 3 min at 92 km to 95 km. The
calculated power spectral densities are well represented by power laws, implying the presence ofthe short-period waves and turbulence in the frequency range of 10−4 Hz to 10−1 Hz.
T. T. Tsuda, et al., “Fine structure of sporadic sodium layer observed with a sodium lidar at Tromsø,
Norway”, Geophys.
Res.
Lett.
38, L18102,
doi:10.1029/2011GL048685, 2011.

Fig.
8. Filteredﬁeld-aligned
ion velocity data
6 May 2007.
Figure4: Filteredfield-aligned
iononvelocity
data

on 6 May 2007, which clearly shows the quasiperiodic disturbances with “downward” phaseprogression in time as typical AGW-TID signatures.

Sporadic E layer observation and analysis

currence rate has a deep minimum in the regionof magnetic midnight, which might be partly explained by irregular auroral activity obscuring the
TID signatures from our detection routines. As
both the period and horizontal phase speed estimates (as derived from the classical AGW dispersion relation) show values typical both for large
scale TIDs and mesoscale TIDs it is difficult to distinguish whether the generator for high-latitude
AGW-TIDs resides typically in the troposphere orin the near-Earth space. The results of the statistical analysis give anyway some valuable reference
information for the future efforts to learn more
about the dominating TID source mechanisms inpolar cap conditions, and to improve AGW simulations.

Based on the theory of wave propagation in thelayered media, a sporadic E layer observed by
the UHF radar in Tromsø (Figure 6) on 3 July
2008 was analysed. The electron density profile
was obtained by inverting the UHF observation,
thus a simulated ionogram (Figure 7) was calculated and compared with the measurements by thedynasonde in Tromsø, as shown in Figure 8. The
result shows that the sporadic E layer ionogram
traces by the theory of partial reflection agrees wellwith the observation.

EISCAT-Cluster observations of quiettime near-Earth magnetotail fast flows
and their signatures in the ionosphere

Pitkänen et al. (2011) report observations of a sequence of quiet-time Earthward bursty bulk flows
A. Vlasov, et al., “A study of Traveling Ionospheric Dis- (BBFs) measured by the Cluster spacecraft in theturbances and Atmospheric Gravity Waves using EIS- near-tail plasma sheet in the evening sector, andCAT Svalbard Radar IPY-data”, Ann. Geophys. 29, by simultaneous high-resolution measurements in
2101–2116, 2011.
the northern conjugate ionosphere by the EISCAT
radars, a MIRACLE all-sky camera, magnetometFine structure of a sporadic sodium layer ers, and a meridian-scanning photometer (MSP)on 17 October 2005.
The BBFs at Cluster show signatures that are
A sporadic sodium layer (SSL) was studied, inparticular its fine structure, that was observed at consistent with the plasma “bubble” model, eg.
92 km to 98 km between 20:00 and 23:30 UT (21:00– deflection and compression of the ambient plasma
24:30 LT) on 11 January 2011 using a sodium lidar, in front of the Earthward moving bubble, magwhich was installed in the European incoherent netic signatures of a flow shear region, and thescatter (EISCAT) radar site at Tromsø, Norway proper flows inside the bubble. In addition,(69.6◦ N, 19.2◦ E) in early 2010 (Figure 5). The clear signatures of tailward return flows aroundsodium lidar measurement with 5-seconds time- the edges of the bubble can be identified. The
resolution reveals the details of dramatic sodium- duskside return flows are associated with significdensity increase as well as short-period wave- ant decrease in plasma density, giving support tolike structure in the SSL. The rate of increase of the recent suggestion of formation of a depleted
height-integrated sodium density at the begin- wake. However, the same feature is not seen for
14

Figure 6: Sporadic E layer observation by the EISCAT UHF radar on 3 July 2008.

Figure 7: Simulated ionogram obtained through inversion of the EISCAT UHF data. Blue line: calculated profile, green stars: EISCAT measurements.

Figure 5: (a) The MF-radar (2.8 MHz) received
power data with a resolution of 5 min and 3 km, at
74 km to 109 km for 19:00–24:00 UT on 11 January
2011. Diamond symbols indicate h′ Es determinedwith the ionosonde at Tromsø. It should be notedthat the height information of the strong echoes
and the h′ Es could be affected by a time delay,i.e. group retardation, in the radio propagation.
(b) The sodium lidar received emission intensity
data with a resolution of 5 s and 96 m. It should
be noted that the emission intensity includes an artificial variation due to changing of the laser frequency at every 1 min. (c) The peak height and(d) the FWHM in the emission intensity of thesporadic sodium layer. Red symbols indicate thoseat 95 km to 98 km, and blue symbols indicate thoseat 92 km to 95 km. The FWHM is also described byvertical grey bar in Figure panel c.

the dawnside return flows, but rather an increasein density.
In the ionosphere, EISCAT and optical measurements show that each of the studied BBFs is associated with an auroral streamer (Figure 9) thatstarts from the vicinity of the polar cap bound-Figure 8: The sporadic E layer as observed by thedynasonde in Tromsø.

ary, intrudes equatorward, brakes at 68◦ MLAT
to 70◦ MLAT and drifts westward along the proton oval. Within the streamer itself and poleward
of it, the ionospheric plasma flow has an equator15

geomagnetic
northsignatures in the ionosphere”, Ann. Geophys. 29, 299,
2011.

PCB

EISCAT
VHF

KEV
ASC

On the statistical relation between ion
upflow and naturally enhanced ionacoustic lines

streamerX

ionosphereY
BBF

magnetosphere

Fig. 9. Schematic illustration of the situation in the ionosphere andFigure9: Schematic illustration of the situationin the ionosphere and possible configuration of
the BBF in the tail close to the XY(GSM) plane ataround 18:31 UT to 18:34 UT when C1 sees the BBF
proper flow. Red arrows indicate the BBF proper
flow and blue arrows the return flows. Wide black
open arrows indicate the drift direction of the flow
pattern.

ward component, which is the ionospheric manifestation of the Earthward BBF channel. A sharp
velocity shear appears at the equatorward edge ofa streamer. It is suggested that each BBF creates a
local velocity shear in the ionosphere, in which theplasma flow poleward of and inside the streamer
is in the direction of the streamer and southeastward. A northwestward return flow is locatedon the equatorward side. The return flow is associated with decreased plasma densities both in
the ionosphere and in the magnetosphere as measured by EISCAT and Cluster, respectively. In summary, the first simultaneous high-resolution observations are presented of BBF return flows both in
the plasma sheet and in the ionosphere, and thoseare in accordance with the bubble model. The
results apply for the duskside return flows, but
the manifestation of dawnside return flows in theionosphere requires further studies.
Finally, EISCAT measurements indicate increased night-side reconnection rate during the≈35 min period of BBFs. It is suggested that theobserved temporal event of IMF rotation to a more
southward direction produces enhanced open flux
transport to the nightside magnetotail, and consequently, the nightside reconnection rate is increased.
T. Pitkänen et al., “EISCAT-Cluster observations ofquiet-time near-Earth magnetotail fast flows and their

16

Characteristics have been investigated of ion upflow and naturally enhanced ion-acoustic lines(NEIALs) based on the European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT) Svalbard radar (ESR) data continuously obtained between March 2007 and February 2008. For the ion upflow study approximately 78,000 field-aligned profiles obtained with
the ESR were used. For the NEIAL study approximately 1500 NEIALs were identified in the
ESR data at altitudes from 100 km to 500 km. The
occurrence frequency of ion upflow shows two
peaks (Figure 10), at about 08:00 and 13:00 magnetic local time (MLT), while only one strong peakis seen around 09:00 MLT for NEIALs. The upward ion flux also has only one peak around
11:00–1300 MLT. The occurrence frequency of ion
upflow varies strongly over season. It is higher
in winter than in summer, whereas NEIALs are
more frequent in summer than in winter. NEIALs
frequently occur under high geomagnetic activity
and also high solar activity conditions. Approximately 10 % of NEIALs in the F region ionosphere
were accompanied by NEIALs in the E region (occurred at altitudes below 200 km). About half ofthe E region enhanced echoes did not have an
F region counterpart. Upshifted NEIALs dominate in the E region whereas downshifted NEIALs
are usually stronger above an altitude of 300 km.
The high occurrence frequency of NEIALs in the
pre-noon region (08:00–10:00 MLT) might be associated with acceleration of thermal ions to suprathermal ones. At the same MLT and geomagnetic latitude suprathermal ions and broadband
extremely low frequency (BBELF) wave activity
have been observed, according to previous studies.

Y. Ogawa, et al., “On the statistical relation between ion
upflow and naturally enhanced ion-acoustic lines observed with the EISCAT Svalbard radar”, J. Geophys.
Res. 116, A03313, doi:10.1029/2010JA015827, 2011.

Figure 10: MLT distribution of (a) the occurrence
frequency of ion upflow, (b) the upward ion flux
at 450 km altitude, (c) the occurrence frequency of
NEIALs in the F region ionosphere. The black line
in Figure panel b indicates the average flux in upflow events, while the gray line indicates the average flux of all data (upflow, downflow, and no flow
events).

Figure 11: The occurrence distribution of the spectral width as a function of the electric field magnitude. Dashed lines show theoretical dependencies for two values of the diffusion coefficient. The
model curves were obtained by using parametersindicated on the plot.

Dependence of spectral width of ionospheric F region HF echoes on electric
field
The EISCAT Svalbard radar monitors plasma
parameters in the ionospheric region that is frequently located near the polar cap boundary. The
SuperDARN radar at Hankasalmi, Finland, detects coherent echoes from this region, and theseechoes typically show increased spectral width.
By combining SuperDARN spectral width with
ESR measurements of the ambient electric field, it
was found that the spectral width of echoes tends
to increase with the electric field (Figure 11). To
explain these observations, it was assumed thatthe irregularities observed were excited through~ ×B~ gradient drift plasma instability with
the E
energy cascading to shorter wavelengths. It was
assumed that once the waves in the decametre
range (detectable by the HAN radar) reach large
amplitudes, their evolution is fully controlled by
the non- linear three-wave interaction with waves
of a smaller size. It was found that the decay
time of these irregularities depends on the intensity of smaller-scale irregularities but not the ones
seen by the radar. The quantitative estimates performed show that the inverse decay time of decametre irregularities increases with the electricfield magnitude and the trend was found to be
similar to the reported experimental data.

A. Kozlovsky, et al., “Dependence of spectral width ofionospheric F region HF echoes on electric field”, J. Geophys. Res. 116 (A07302), 1–6, 2011.

Solar zenith angle dependence ofplasma density and temperature in thepolar cap ionosphere and low-altitude
magnetosphere
The solar zenith angle (SZA) dependence of theion and electron temperatures is investigated statistically on the basis of data obtained by the Akebono and Intercosmos satellites, and European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT) Svalbard radar (ESR)(Figure 12). A drastic change in the electron temperature occurs near the terminator, similarly tothat in the electron density profile obtained by the
Akebono satellite. The sum of the ion and electron temperatures obtained by the ESR (∼6500 K
at ∼1050 km altitude under sunlit conditions and∼3000 K at ∼750 km altitude under dark conditions) agrees well with the scale height at low altitudes obtained from the Akebono observations,assuming that the temperature is constant and thatO+ ions are dominant. Comparisons between thepresent statistical results (SZA dependence of theelectron density and ion and electron temperatures) and modeling studies of the polar wind indicate that the plasma density profile (especiallyof the O+ ion density) in the polar cap is strongly
controlled by solar radiation onto the ionosphere17

data were used in conjunction with satellite observations from IMAGE, NOAA-16 and DMSPF14. The ground-based and space-based data
provided inputs to a coupled electron deposition
and ion chemistry model which predicted theoverall emission rate. The predicted rates werecompared to multi-wavelength optical data (Hβ,+N+
4P-4D emissions) measured
2 1N(0,2) and O
from the ground, showing that, at the time of theclosest approach of NOAA-16, the model predictions were in good agreement with the groundbased optical data, based on precipitating protons and electrons with total fluxes of 0.23 mW m−2
and 3.0 mW m−2 , respectively (Figure 14). It was
deduced that the variations in F region electron
density, and in the emissions from transitions ofO+ and N+
2 , could largely be explained by electron precipitation, whereas the E region densitychanges and emissions could largely be accounted
for by proton precipitation.

Figure 12: (a) SZA dependence of the ion (Ti ) andelectron (Te ) temperatures obtained by the Intercosmos (IK) satellites (500 km to 1000 km altitude)and ESR (700 km to 800 km altitude). Altitude profiles of the ion and electron temperatures in the
SZA ranges of (b) 70◦ to 80◦ and (c) ´90◦ to 120◦ .
Blue and red points and lines show Ti and Te obtained by ESR, respectively. Black (number of orbit
passes ≥6) and grey (number of orbit passes ≤5)
points and lines show Te observed by the IK satellites. Points denote median temperatures. Error
bars indicate quartiles.

B. Lanchester, et al., “Separating and quantifying
ionospheric responses to proton and electron precipitation over Svalbard”, J. Geophys. Res. 116,
A09322, doi:10.1029/2011JA016474, 2011.

Energy and flux variations across thinauroral arcs

by changing ion and electron temperatures in theionosphere during geomagnetically quiet periods.
N. Kitamura, et al., “Solar zenith angle dependence ofplasma density and temperature in the polar cap ionosphere and low-altitude magnetosphere during geomagnetically quiet periods at solar maximum”, J. Geophys. Res. 115, A07310, doi:10.1029/2009JA014766,
2011.

Auroral studies
Separating and quantifying ionospheric
responses to proton and electron precipitation over Svalbard
Lanchester et al. (2011) used the EISCAT Svalbard Radar, together with data from the ASK optical imager, to study an auroral event observed
during a period of high solar wind velocity, but
low solar wind densit (Figure 13). The radar18

Two discrete auroral arc filaments, with widthsof less than 1 km, have been analysed using
multi-station, multi-monochromatic optical observations from small and medium field-of-view imagers and the EISCAT radar. The energy andflux of the precipitating electrons, volume emission rates and local electric fields in the ionospherehave been determined at high temporal (up to
30 Hz) and spatial (down to tens of metres) resolution. A new time-dependent inversion model isused to derive energy spectra from EISCAT electron density profiles. The energy and flux arealso derived independently from optical emissions
combined with ion-chemistry modelling, and agood agreement is found. A robust method to
obtain detailed 2-D maps of the average energy
and number flux of small scale aurora is presented. The arcs are stretched in the north-south direction, and the lowest energies are found on thewestern, leading edges of the arcs. The large ionospheric electric fields (250 mV m−1 ) found from tristatic radar measurements (Figure 15) are evidence of strong currents associated with the region
close to the optical arcs. The different data sets
indicate that the arcs appear on the boundaries
between regions with different average energy ofFigure 13: Overview of ground-based measurements for 01:00–05:30 UT on 16 December 2001: (a) ESR averaged electron density between 115 km and 140 km, (b) HiTIES Hβ brightness as a function of wavelength,+(c) HiTIES N+
2 and O integrated brightness, (d) IMAGE Lyα brightness over Svalbard and integrated HiTIES Hβ, and (e) IMAGE Lyα brightness as a function of geographic latitude. The NOAA-16 track is seen at
04:00 UT. The vertical lines correspond to peaks in the HiTIES integrated Hβ brightness. The SI12 data do notextend to the end of the interval.

diffuse precipitation, caused by pitch-angle scattering. The two thin arcs on these boundaries arefound to be related to an increase in number flux(and thus increased energy flux) without an increase in energy. Figure 16 compares height profiles of the EISCAT electron density for the timeinterval around one arc, with the corresponding
modelled electron density.

to previously studied streamer events without
such a configuration. These differences are attributed to the presence of an additional poleward polarisation electric field between the poleward and the equatorward portions of the double
oval, and simple model shows that such an assumption can conceptually explain the observations. Further, an estimation was made of thetotal current transferred in meridional direction by
H. Dahlgren et al., “Energy and flux variations across this recovery phase streamer to be ≈80 kA, signithin auroral arcs”, Ann. Geophys. 29, 1699–1712, ficantly less than for previously analysed expandoi:10.5194/angeo-29-1699-2011, 2011.
sion phase streamer events. Both results indicate that the development of auroral streamers deA statistical investigation of the Cowling pends on the ambient background conditions in
the magnetosphere-ionosphere system. The auchannel efficiency in the auroral zone
roral streamer event studied was simultaneously
During the late evening and night of 14 September observed in the conjugate Northern and Southern
2004, the nightside auroral oval shows a distinct Hemisphere ionosphere.
double-oval configuration for several hours after
substorm onset, observed by the IMAGE satellite O. Amm, et al., “A statistical investigation of the Cowlas well as the MIRACLE network. During the re- ing channel efficiency in the auroral zone”, J. Geophys,
covery phase of the substorm, an auroral streamer Res. 116, A02304, doi:10.1029/2010JA015988, 2011.
is detected by these instruments and the EISCAT
radar, while simultaneously the Cluster satellites Dynamics and characteristics of blackobserve a bursty bulk flow in the conjugate por- aurora as observed by high resolution
tion of the plasma sheet in the magnetotail. The ground-based imagers and radar
present combined data analysis reveals significant differences between the ionospheric equival- Archer et al. (2011) used ESR measurements, toent current signature of this streamer (Figure 17) gether with high-resolution multi-spectral data
within a double-oval configuration, as compared from the ASK imager, to study the fine struc19

Figure 16: Top: electron density profiles from EISCAT measurements, for the 1932 arc. Bottom: corresponding modelled electron density. The biteout in the data at 19:32:10 UT is not reproduced by
the model, and is believed to be caused by horizontal convection of plasma near the arc.

Figure 14: Measured (crosses) and modeled ESRelectron densities at the time of the peak ionisation at 04:00 UT. Model electron precipitation(dotted lines) is shown for two different peak
input energy fluxes of 0.5 mW m−2 (blue) and
3.0 mW m−2 (black). Other contributions are protonoelectrons (dash-dotted line), protoionisation(dash–triple dotted line) and total proton ionisation (long-dashed line). The solid lines correspondto total modelled electron densities.

Fig. 5. Keogram-style overview of ionospheric equivalent current development during the substorm within which our BBF event occurred.

Figure 17: Keogram-style overview of ionosphericequivalent current development during the substorm within which the bursty bulk flow (BBF)
event occurred (green dashed line). Left panel:
westward component of ionospheric equivalentcurrents as a function of geographic latitude andtime (substorm onset marked red dashed line);right panel: total meridionally integrated westward (blue) and eastward (red) currents as a function of time, in A.

rings. By relating the observed auroral structures
to measurements of particle energy, Archer et al.
were able to test different theories of how “black
auroras” are created. They reported that the large
reduction in high-energy precipitation observedin conjunction with the observation of black aurora favoured a model in which the dark patches
correspond to regions where the highest energy
particles are blocked by magnetospheric processes
from entering the precipitation loss cone.

Figure 15: Top: north and west components of thederived electric field from EISCAT, as a function oftime. Bottom: direction and amplitude of the electric field vector at each instant of time.

ture of “black aurora”, the dark lanes or patches
between regions of bright emission. Sixteen eventswere analysed, corresponding to sheared and unsheared black arcs, as well as black patches and

J. Archer, et al., “Dynamics and characteristics of black
aurora as observed by high resolution ground-based im-20

agers and radar”, Int. J. Remote Sens. 32, 2973-2985,
doi:10.1080/01431161.2010.541517, 2011.

Polar
echoesmesosphericsummerEvidence of isotropic scattering fromPMSE
In an EISCAT campaign in the summer of 2011,
the Kiruna EISCAT_3D Demonstrator Array was
employed to make measurements of Polar Mesospheric Summer Echoes (PMSE). The demonstrator is a small array of yagi antennas connected to a digital receiver. It was built to make testsof EISCAT_3D software and hardware. It operates
at the EISCAT VHF frequency (224 MHz) and its
beam intersects the VHF beam at a point on thevertical above the VHF radar. The initial tests weremade with the intersection point in the F-region.
Shortly before the summer in 2011 the intersection
was changed to the D-region. It was a surprise to
discover that the demonstrator measured strong
signals coming from PMSE above Tromsø when
it was illuminated by the VHF radar, as shown in
Figure18, since the scattering angle is quite large,
that is θ = 69◦ .
It is believed that the cause of PMSE is turbulence of the neutral atmosphere that couples tothe ionised part of it via collisions. A decisiverole is played by large (radius 10 nm to 50 nm)
charged ice particles (a dusty plasma) that prolongs the inertial regime of turbulence such thatelectron irregularities may exist with scale sizes
that meet the Bragg condition for scattering. Thus,
the radar measurements function as a tracer ofplasma and neutral turbulence. These Kirunameasurements of an absence of aspect sensitivityof the PMSE echoes show that this turbulence isnearly isotropic which agrees with Kolmogorov’s
hypothesis that regardless of the anisotropy of the
turbulence at large scales, the cascading of energy
to the inertial subrange is such that in this regime
the turbulence becomes isotropic (and homogeneous). It is to be noted that there have been in thepast numerous measurements of aspect sensitivityof PMSE, none of them having reported such large
scattering angles. To our knowledge, these measurements have been made in monostatic mode,that is, by tilting the transmitting/receiving antenna off vertical and measuring the decrease of
the scattered power. Typically, these measure-

Figure 18: The top two panels show measurementsof scattered power of PMSE from Tromsø andKiruna respectively. The lower left panel shows aschematic of the T–K bistatic geometry. The cartoon on the lower right panel illustrates the geometry of anisotropic and isotropic scattering. The
observed large scattering angle from Kiruna (69◦ )is an indication of isotropic scattering, meaningthat the irregularities of electron density that cause
the scattering have nearly isotropic distributions.
It was surmised that Komogorov’s hypothesis that
turbulence becomes isotropic (and homogeneous)at the scale sizes of the inertial regime is valid for
turbulence in the polar mesosphere.

ments result in 10◦ to 20◦ as the angle at which thesignal vanishes.
C. La Hoz, H. Pinedo and O. Havnes, “Aspect sensitivity of PMSE observed at large scattering angles by the
EISCAT radar”, to be submitted.

PMSE research highlights from German
EISCAT users
The EISCAT users in Germany (especially in
Leibniz-Institute of Atmospheric Physics (IAP))
have been involved in several research activities
in the frame of CAWSES priority program, eg.
the investigation of frequency dependence of polar mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE) using simultaneous and common-volume measurements.
The available experimental record impressively
demonstrates that the radar volume reflectivity of
PMSE (that is the scattering cross section per unit
volume) reveals a tremendous frequency dependence such that simultaneous and common-volume
observations at two different frequencies should
be an ideal tool for studying the validity of theoretical expectations. Along this line, systematicstudies of PMSE were carried out based on the21

Figure 21: Relative occurrence of reflectivities (upper panels) and normalised distribution of the reflectivities along the altitudes (lower panels) obtained with EISCAT VHF radar (left panels) and
EISCAT UHF radar (right panels) in July 2004–
2005.

Figure 19: Volume reflectivity obtained with the
EISCAT UHF radar at 930 MHz (upper panels) andthe EISCAT VHF radar at 224 MHz (low panels) on
13 July 2004 (left column) and 9 July 2005 (rightcolumn), respectively. The heating parts were removed before being integrated into 1 min. Blanks
in both panels indicate times where meteor echoes
were removed.
PMSE OR @ Tromsø , July 2004−2005
94
TOR in the VHF: 84.987%
TOR in the UHF: 5.3264%

92

altitude [km]

90
88
86
84
82
VHF
UHF

80
78
0

5

10

15
20
25
percentage [%]30

35

Figure 20: Comparison of PMSE occurrence rate at
930 MHz (in blue) and 224 MHz (in red) respectively derived from the EISCAT UHF and VHF observations in July 2004 and 2005. The total occurrence rates are indicated in the insert.

analysis of simultaneous and common-volume observations of PMSE with the ESR and SSR as wellas with the EISCAT VHF and UHF radar, respectively, to study the statistical properties of PMSE
at frequencies more than the “standard” frequencyof 50 MHz, to derive microphysical parameters of
the involved ice particles, and to discern the coherent scattering mechanism of PMSE at two different frequencies. The corresponding importantresults have been presented and published whilst
there are also a number of EISCAT highlights reported in the previous Annual Report Germany.
In Figure 19 two typical examples are presented of simultaneous PMSE observed with the EISCAT VHF and UHF radars on July 13th 2004 andJuly 9th 2005, respectively. It is noted that pronounced echoes were simultaneously observed byboth radars for a quite long duration. The VHFechoes, however, generally extend over a larger
22

altitude range than the UHF-echoes and show
more variations in the morphology (sometimes
appearing with double-layer or even multi-layer
structures), whereas the UHF-echoes appear intermittently as a very thin layer. In order to statistically demonstrate the difference between the
VHF- and UHF-PMSE, next a comparison is madebetween PMSE at both frequencies in terms of occurrence rate and volume reflectivity, η. Making use of the observations in July 2004 and 2005
with the EISCAT VHF and UHF radars, the derived altitude profiles are presented of the occurrence rates of PMSE at both frequencies in Figure 20. UHF-PMSE show much smaller occurrence
rates than VHF-PMSE and UHF-PMSE were observed in a considerably narrower altitude range,i.e., from 81 km to 87 km. Furthermore, the volumereflectivities of PMSE observations are comparedat both frequencies. Histograms of η, as well as
corresponding altitude-resolved distributions, arepresented in Figure 21. η-values obtained from the
EISCAT VHF and UHF observations fall within
the range from 1.35 × 10−18 m−1 to 1.58 × 10−14 m−1
with the maximum around 10−17 m−1 and from1.95 × 10−19 m−1 to 7.01 × 10−18 m−1 with the maximum smaller than 10−18 m−1 , respectively. Focusing on the lower panels, it is stressed that there are
two patches in the distribution of the UHF PMSE
which are consistent with corresponding maxima
of the η-distribution for VHF-PMSE around 86 km
and from 82 km to 84 km.
Besides the previous analysis of PMSE, anotherexercise was to study the influence of the involved
ice particles in PMSE on ambient electron densities with the simultaneous observations with the
EISCAT VHF and UHF radars. It is common belief that the occurrence of PMSE is closely connected to the presence of ice particles which become
negatively charged due to electron attachment and40
35#number

30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0

0.5

1
Parameter n

1.5

2

Figure 23: Distribution of parameter n derived
from the UHF-observations in the presence of
PMSE observed with the EISCAT VHF radar. For
large majority of cases, n < 1 indicative of the presence of charged ice particles and no UHF-PMSE.

Figure 22: Upper panel: Scatter plot of the derived Λ values from the UHF observations against
the corresponding volume reflectivities of the VHF
PMSE (Λ with values larger than 0.5 are marked
with red crosses); Lower panel: Histogram of Λwith the number of Λ in the different ranges indicated in the insert.

hence effectively scavenge electrons. This process occasionally leads to large electron density
depletions which have also been called “biteouts”.
The EISCAT radars are both incoherent scatter (IS)radars and archive measurements from a superposition of coherent scatter from PMSE and incoherent scatter from ambient plasma in the ionospheric D-region (i.e., at altitudes below ∼95 km).
Due to the frequency dependence of PMSE mentioned above, the VHF radar observes PMSE much
more frequently than the UHF radar. Given a
sufficiently large electron density, however, theUHF observations may be dominated by incoherent scatter from the D-region electrons such thatthey can be used to infer electron densities in thepresence of PMSE simultaneously observed with
the VHF radar. This analysis has been applied
to all 25 h of simultaneous observations and derived 757 Λ-values from the UHF observations in
the presence of VHF PMSE. Here Λ is the ratio
between the charge number density of ice particle
and free electron number densities. That Λ = 1,
for example, means there are 50 % of electronsattached on ice particles and 50 % of free electrons left. The lower panel of Figure 22 presents
the distribution of the derived Λ-values. For thelarge majority of cases (699 cases), the Λ values
are within the range from −0.3 to 0.3 which canbe considered close to 0 and hence no strong electron biteouts are observed. Please note that the occurrence of negative Λ-values simply reveals theimperfection of our algorithm to determine theundisturbed electron density and may hence beconsidered as a systematic error of our analysis.
This means that the quoted Λ-values should beconsidered to have error bars of ±0.3 because ofthis effect. Nevertheless, this method still allows
to quantify depletions with Λ-values larger thansay 0.5. From 757 cases, there are only 33 caseswith Λ > 0.5 marked with red crosses in the upper
panel (21 cases with Λ > 1), i.e., only 4.4 % of all
the observations.
In addition, the upper panel of Figure 22 reveals that the distribution of Λ-values versus thevolume reflectivities of VHF PMSE shows no obvious correlation between them. This is, however,expected: According to the turbulence with large
Schmidt number theory (TWLS-theory) of PMSE,
the volume reflectivity of PMSE is most strongly
controlled by the Schmidt number which canchange the volume reflectivity at given wavenumber k by many orders of magnitude whereas thedependence on Λ is much less pronounced.
Before any final conclusions can be drawn on
the statistical distribution of Λ, it should be notedthat the UHF observations could be a superposition of incoherent scatter from the disturbed electron densities and coherent scatter from the UHF
PMSE which, however, does not stand well outof the ambient incoherent scatter from the ionospheric plasma. Next the spectral shapes arechecked of corresponding auto-correlation functions (ACF) in order to find out whether such casesof superposition do frequently occur and create abias in the data. The expression of the ACF magnitude is approximated as:

23

ACF(τ ) = ACFτ =0 · exp {−(τ /τe )n }(1)

Here n is an exponent to describe the shape of thespectrum. That is, n = 1 and n = 2 represent a
Lorentzian (=pure incoherent scatter) and a Gaussian (=coherent scatter), respectively, whereas n <1 marks the cases with the presence of charged ice
particles. According to the above discussion, there
should be two possibilities for the spectral shapes
derived from the simultaneous observations withboth radars when the VHF radar observed pronounced PMSE and the UHF observations show
an apparently undisturbed electron density profile. I.e., the parameter n should be close to 2
for the VHF observations whereas it should either
also be close to 2 for the cases in the presence of
UHF PMSE or smaller than 1 in the presence of
charged ice particles (and pure incoherent scatter). This analysis was applied to all the observations. The corresponding results of the derived
parameters n (for UHF-observations at altitudes
with VHF-PMSE) is shown in Figure 23. The parameter n shows that large majority of cases withvalues smaller than 1, which indicates that there
are charged ice particles present in the vicinity of
VHF PMSE but no PMSE were observed with the
EISCAT UHF radar. This finding confirms that the
distribution of Λ-values is not biased by a superposition of coherent and incoherent scatter. In addition, this result underlines the importance of thepresence of charged ice particles for the generationof PMSE and demonstrates that small relative concentrations of charged ice particles are sufficient tocreate these very strong coherent echoes.

Figure 24: The measured PMSE return power at
different elevations of the EISCAT VHF radar.

M. Rapp et al., “Localized mesosphere-stratospheretroposphere radar echoes from the E region at 69◦ N:
Properties and physical mechanisms”, J. Geophys. Res.,
116, A02320, doi: 10.1029/2010JA016167, 2011.

EISCAT VHF measurements of aspectsensitivity in the vicinity of polar mesospheric summer echoes

N. Engler and M. Rapp,“Analysis of spectral parameters of polar mesosphere winter echoes using the EISCAT VHF radar”, 15th International EISCAT Workshop,
Qingdao, China, 5–9 September, 2011 (talk).

The aspect sensitivity describes the radar signal
dependence when the beam is tilted from the vertical direction. The Chinese campaign in July 2010shows that the echo power is varying at different
Q. Li and M. Rapp, “EISCAT radars: Potentials to study elevations as indicated in Figure 24. The strongest
the properties of PMSE and the ambient environment”, echoes do not lie in the vertical direction, which
15th International EISCAT Workshop, Qingdao, China, show that the turbulence theory used to explain
PMSE may be not an optimum tool.
5–9 September, 2011 (talk).
In addition, PMSE observation on 13 July, 2010shows a double layer as indicated by Figure 25(top). Figure 25 (bottom) indicates that the top
layer shows the decreasing echo power with theoffset from vertical, and the bottom layer does not
Q. Li, “Multi-frequency radar observations of po- show an obvious aspect sensitivity, which is verylar mesosphere summer echoes: Statistical properties different from results obtained before.
Q. Li and M. Rapp, “PMSE-observations with the
EISCAT VHF and UHF-Radars: Statistical properties”, J. Atmos. Sol. Terr. Phys. 73(9), 944–956,
doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2010.05.015, 2011.

and microphysical results”, Ph.D. thesis, University of
Rostock, Germany, 2011.
J. Kieser, “The influence of precipitating solar and magnetospheric energetic charged particles on the entire
atmosphere: Simulations with HOMMONIA”, Ph.D.
thesis, University of Hamburg, Germany, 2011.

24

Li Hailong et al., “VHF radar measurements of aspectsensitivity in the vicinity of polar mesosphere summer
echoes during Chinese campaign”, 15th International
EISCAT Workshop, Qingdao China, September 2011.

Figure 26: Half width at half maximum measured
simultaneously by UHF and VHF radar. Red solidline shows 1 : 1 slope. Blue dash-dotted line shows
the relationship of two spectral widths in the caseof incoherent scattering mechanism.
Figure 25: PMSE measured by EISCAT VHF radar.
Top panel: The two layers of the PMSE. Bottom
panel: Echo power from the PMSE as function of
offset from the vertical. The top layer is shown in
red and the bottom layer in blue. The arrows indicate vertical.

Majority of PMSE spectral widths at
UHF and VHF are compatible with asingle scattering mechanism
Motivated by a recent controversy in the literature about the agreement or disagreement of spectral widths (after conversion to Doppler-velocities)of PMSE observed simultaneously with the EISCAT VHF and UHF radars in Tromsø, Norway,
this issue was reconsidered taking into account amuch larger data set than in any of the previous
studies. While these previous studies only considered case studies of a few minutes in length,
this study considered a total of 380 min of simultaneous and common volume observations withthese two radars at a time resolution of 30 s, i.e.,a total of 760 samples. This study is important
to discern whether PMSE at these two frequencies
originate from the same coherent scattering mechanism or if different physical mechanisms are atwork.
It was found that the VHF spectra are on average well described by a Gauss shape (with spectral
parameter n = 2 — which is derived from a generalised formulation of the autocorrelation func-tion), whereas the UHF-spectra show a small deviation from this shape with an average n of 1.6.
In Figure 26 a scatter plot is shown of spectral widths derived from the simultaneous VHFand UHF-observations described above. The 1 :1 slope marked by the red solid line shows values
where the spectral widths derived from the VHF
observations (ordinate) equal those ones derived
from the UHF measurements (abscissa). Figure 26
demonstrates that most data have spectral widths
which are very close at both frequencies with only
weak scattering around equality (red line). Spectral widths do largely agree but show a small systematic difference, i.e., the UHF spectra are on
average 0.1 m s−1 narrower than the VHF spectra
at an average spectral width of 3.5 m s−1 . This
small systematic effect is largely explained considering the overall effect of beam-, shear-, and wavebroadening. This means that the slightly different beam widths of the VHF and UHF-radars andthe hence slightly different observing volumes account for the small systematic difference in mean
spectral width.
Finally, it was demonstrated that the small deviation of UHF-spectra from a perfect Gauss shape
can be either due to relatively small signal-tonoise ratios of the UHF-data and/or a superposition of incoherent and coherent scatter in cases
where both contributions add equally to the total
observed power. Since VHF PMSE are much morestronger than the incoherent scatter backgroundthis effect can not be recognized in VHF observations. This superposition effect may occasion-25

ally also lead to larger deviations between VHF
and UHF spectra in that it can potentially narrow the UHF-spectra significantly. However, excluding these rather rare and exotic cases, it was
concluded that the majority of the observations
are compatible with a single coherent scattering at
both VHF and UHF.
I. Strelnikova and M. Rapp, “Majority of PMSE spectral
widths at UHF and VHF are compatible with a single
scattering mechanism”, J. Atmos. Sol. Terr. Phys. 73,
2142–2152, doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2010.11.025, 2011.

Dusty space plasma diagnosis using
temporal behavior of polar mesosphericsummer echoes during active modification
Mahmoudian et al. (2011) studied the different behaviour of Polar Mesosheric Summer Echoes during EISCAT heating experiments, in an attempt
to diagnose the variations in parameters such as
electron temperature enhancement during heating, dust density, dust charge polarity, ion-neutral
collision frequency, electron density and dust radius, from the different ways that the layers behaved as the Heater was turned off and on (Figure 27). They produced a model which predicted
the results of PMSE modulation experiments at a
range of different frequencies (7.9 MHz, 56 MHz,
139 MHz, 224 MHz and 930 MHz) corresponding
to the existing radar facilities, and compared thiswith observations in order to obtain the dust parameters.

Figure 27: A comparison of VHF radar superposed
epoch data during radiowave heating and resultsfrom the computational model. Panel (a) shows
the superposed epoch of PMSE VHF backscatter
power, and panel (b) the computational model result.

of the PMSE layer, and showed that, in those cases,
A. Mahmoudian, et al., “Dusty space plasma diagnosis the atmospheric attenuation of the HF heater wave
using temporal behavior of polar mesospheric summer was too great for it to have any effect on the PMSE
echoes during active modification”, Ann. Geophys. layer.
29, 2169-2179, 2011.

Statistical survey of electron temperature enhancements in heater modulated
polar mesospheric summer echoes
Routledge et al. (2011) presented a statistical analysis of 26 PMSE modulation experiments (Figure 28), conducted between 2002 and 2007, usinga model to estimate the enhancement of D region
electron temperature caused by the heating, showing that the modulation of the PMSE layer for a
fixed electron temperature enhancement is essentially independent of height. They also studied
a number of cases (Figure 29) in which the heating experiment failed to achieve any modulation

G. Routledge, et al., “A statistical survey of electron temperature enhancements in heater modulated
polar mesospheric summer echoes at EISCAT”, J.
Atmos.
Sol.
Terr.
Phys.
73, 4, 472-482,
doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2010.11.004, 2011.

Active experiments
Temporal development of the magnetic
zenith effectHonary et al. (2011) made an experimental studyof the “magnetic zenith effect”, a time-dependent
phenomenon observed when the ionosphere isheated by high-power electromagnetic waves. It
26

Figure 28: Superposed epoch analysis of PMSE
backscatter intensity variations due to HF pumping on 15/07/2004. The dashed vertical lines
represent the boundaries between the HF pump
ON/OFF cycle. The vertical error bars represent
the standard error of the backscatter power and account for the variation in backscatter power fromcycle to cycle.

Figure 29: Modelled profile of enhanced electron
temperature for the successful PMSE modulation
experiment of 15/07/2004. The grey band from80 km to 88 km denotes the altitude span of the
PMSE layer. For this particular experiment, Xmode modulation was used and its predicted temperature enhancement is shown as the solid curve.
The dashed curve represents the predicted temperature effect had O-mode heating been used on thisoccasion. The dotted curve represents the background electron temperature for this day.

is known that, during the first few seconds after
heating, the strongest electron density irregularities and the greatest enhancements in electron temperature appear to migrate towards the magnetic
zenith direction. Honary et al. showed that thetime taken for the electron temperature to reach astable state is between 5 s and 10 s, which is consistent with the growth time of electron density irregularities in the heated region, with transverse
sizes on the order of several metres. The authors
demonstrated that, when heating occurred in the
direction of the magnetic field, as opposed to vertically, the resulting electron temperature enhance-

Figure 30: The relative increase in electron temperature during heating. (top panel) Both radarand heater in the field-aligned direction. (bottom
panel) Radar and heater both vertical.

ments were greater by at least a factor of two (Figure 30). They also found a new position, between
the magnetic zenith and the Spitze angle, where
the heating effect appears to maximize, leadingthem to propose a new explanation of the magnetic zenith effect, in which Upper Hybrid Resonance modes can be trapped in plasma striations,
localised above the level where the plasma frequency coincides with the frequency of the heaterpump wave, within a region which is 2◦ to 3◦ inwidth (Figure 30). The increase of the electron
temperature in striations is known to take place
very rapidly, hence explaining the rapid dynamics of the magnetic zenith effect. This new theory
also appears to explain recent heating and airglow
observations reported at HAARP.

F. Honary, et al., “Temporal development of themagnetic zenith effect”, J. Geophys.
Res.
116,
A06309, doi:10.1029/2010JA016029, 2011.

27

Figure 31: (top panel) Altitude profiles of power(12 µs lag profile in arbitrary units), averaged overmultiple heater cycles, and over each of the different heater and radar beam configurations: (a) bothheater and radar beams are field aligned, (b) heater
beam is vertical and radar beam is directed toward
the local magnetic field, (c) heater beam is fieldaligned and the radar beam is in vertical position,and finally, (d) heater and radar beams are bothvertical. Solid lines are heater-on measurements,
and dotted lines are heater-off. The shaded regions show range gates that are not contaminated(162.8 km to 173.6 km and 200.7 km to 211.5 km)
which are used for the measurement of electron
temperatures. (bottom panel) The complete set of
12 µs lag profiles, averaged over the cycles.

Figure 32: EISCAT measurements of electon cooling time constants (circles) compared to theoreticalvalues computed from Banks (red line) and Wait
and Spies (blue line).

EISCAT incoherent scatter radar measurements of artificial ionospheric modification at sub-ms time scales
Efficient generation of ELF/VLF waves throughthe modulation of ionospheric currents requires
reliable measurements of the modulated current
for different heater parameters. Incoherent scatter radar (ISR) measurements of modified plasma
densities/temperatures would be ideal in quantifying the heating and cooling cycles in response
to modulated heating by high-power HF waves.
Considering the ms time scales of ELF/VLF generation processes, it is necessary to resolve theheating and cooling cycles at sub-ms time scales.
Such measurements using ISRs have largely been
avoided due to the common knowledge that the
instrument requires minutes of integration.
Results are presented of an epoch averaging experiment using EISCAT that provides 0.2 ms resolution ISR power measurements as a function ofphase into the HF heater ON and OFF cycle. In
ELF/VLF generation, it is the electron temperature (Te ) modulation that results in the modulationof electron collision frequency/mobility and therefore the electrojet modulation. Assuming a reliable electron collision frequency for transport asa function of Te , it is necessary to measure Te andelectron density (Ne ) simultaneously to predict theionospheric current modulation. This is possible
if two incoherent scatter radars operating at sufficiently different frequencies are used and if the
Debye length and Bragg wavelengths are comparable.
For the experiment results presented here, theionospheric volume modified by the EISCAT
heater were probed by both EISCAT UHF and
VHF incoherent scatter radars operating at 0.16 m
and 0.67 m Bragg wavelengths. Considering Ne =109 m−3 in the D region ionosphere, for electron temperature Te = 300 K, the Debye lengthis 0.38 m, where as for Te = 1000 K the Debye
length is 0.69 m; these parameters are reasonably
appropriate to extract Te /Ne from simultaneous
UHF/VHF data.
ISR power modulation was successfully detected both in the E and F region heated ionosphere.
The findings are as follows:
1. D region ISR spectral broadenings are identified as evidence of plasma heating from100 km down to 75 km altitude.
2. During the 1.4 ms ON and 1.4 ms OFF heating cycle at 4 MHz X mode, D region modulations of ISR power were successfully detected (Figure 32), with the modulations neverrecovering to the non-heated state. This implies a time-scale for heating/cooling greaterthan several ms or longer.

28

Figure 33: Ion line spectra at altitudes from 170 km
to 270 km from data that have been post-integrated
to one minute during the SPEAR heater-ON period
between 10:04 and 10:08 UT on 25 February 2011.

Figure 34: (a) The temperature correction (corrected temperature−uncorrected temperature) shown
as a function of PGM amplitude ratio, defined as
the PGM amplitude divided by the mean of the
up-shifted and down-shifted ion line amplitudes.
The scatterplot uses results from one minute integrated data, taken from ∼70 SPEAR-on periods in 2004, during campaigns in April, September/October and December. The strength of thecorrelation between the two parameters assumes alinear fit of 0.385. The best linear fit is shown by thedashed black line. (b) The relationship between thetemperature correction and the percentage change
in the GUISDAP fit residual, calculated using theresidual values from fits made to the uncorrected
and corrected spectra, using the same data set as inpanel (a). Again, the best linear fit is indicated by
the dashed black line, and the correlation between
the two parameters is only -0.231. Histograms of
the PGM amplitude ratio for samples where thetemperature correction was (c) less, or (d) greater,
than the uncorrected electron temperature error.
(e) The percentage change in fit residual is represented as a histogram, which shows that the majority of samples (85 %) experienced a reduction in the
fit residual which was less than 10 %.

3. In the F region, the time scale of the development of plasma turbulence is measured to benear 0.3 ms, and the decay is around 0.2 ms.
In addition, are working on inferring Te and Ne
profiles by combining UHF and VHF radar measurements.
H. Bahcivan and M. Nicolls, “EISCAT incoherent scatter radar measurements of artificial ionospheric modification at sub-ms time scales”, AGU fall meeting, San
Francisco, USA, 2011.

Alternative estimation of the RFenhanced plasma temperature during
SPEAR experiments
Vickers and Baddeley (2011) investigated the apparent lack of electron temperature enhancements
as seen in ESR data during HF heating by SPEAR(Figure 33). They showed that contaminationof the incoherent scatter spectrum by the Purely
Growing Mode (PGM) of plasma instability canmake the realistic estimation of temperatures very
difficult, especially because PGM signatures canbe very persistent. Using a recently developed
method to remove the PGM signatures from themeasured incoherent scatter spectra, Vickers andBaddeley were able to demonstrate that the corrected measurements produced temperatures in good
agreement with theory, ranging from a few tens toa few hundreds of Kelvin above background level,
once effects such as absorption had been accounted for (Figure 34).

temperature during SPEAR artificial heating experiments: Early results”, J. Geophys. Res. 116,
A11323, doi:10.1029/2011JA016795, 2011.

Scientific highlights from Russian EISCAT users

Two HF heating campaigns were held by the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (Russia) in
March and October 2011. The main attention was
paid to plasma modifications induced by X-mode
powerful HF radio waves injected towards the
H. M. S. Vickers, and L. J. Baddeley, “An al- magnetic zenith into the high latitude F region
ternative estimation of the RF-enhanced plasma of the ionosphere. The EISCAT HF heating fa29

cility, located near Tromsø in Northern Norway(geographical coordinates 69.6◦ N, 19.2◦ E; magnetic dip angle I = 78◦ ) was used to modify
the ionosphere in the high-latitude F region. The
heating facility operated at 5.423 MHz, 6.2 MHz,6.77 MHz, 7.1 MHz and 7.9 MHz, with X-mode polarization, and with 10 min continuous HF pulses.
The phased array 1, with the width of the HF antenna beam of about 7◦ , was used in October 2011,
resulting in an effective radiated power (ERP) of
520 MW to 1100 MW. The HF heater antenna beam
was tilted 12◦ to the south of zenith, thus allowing
HF pumping in the field–aligned direction (magnetic zenith, MZ).
The HF heating facility at Tromsø is located adjacent to the EISCAT UHF incoherent radar which
operates at a frequency of 930 MHz. During theexperiments the UHF radar measured the ionospheric plasma parameters, such as the electron
density and temperature (Ne and Te ), the ion temperature (Ti ), and the ion velocity (Vi ), in thealtitude range from 90 km to 600 km mostly inthe direction of the magnetic zenith. Ionograms
were taken every four minutes using the EISCAT
dynasonde, which is co-located with both the EISCAT UHF and heater array at Tromsø.
The results obtained in the course of experiments for the first time clearly demonstrate that
the X-mode HF pump wave with high effective radiated power of 520 MW to 1100 MW can generatevery strong electron density enhancements in thefield-aligned direction (artificial ducts) in the highlatitude F-region ionosphere when the heater frequency is above foF2 .
Table 1 describes the heater and ionosphereparameters for the experiments on 7, 8, 10, 11,
and 12 October 2011 during which the ionosphere
was modified by X-mode HF pump waves. In all
events listed in Table 1, extremely strong electron
density enhancements (∼60 % to 70 %) in a wide
altitude range up to the upper limit of the EISCATUHF radar measurements (600 km) occurred. By
way of illustration Figure 35 presents the altitudetemporal variations of Ne and Te from the EISCAT UHF radar observations during HF heating
experiment on 10 October 2011. The appearance ofelectron density enhancements in a wide altitude
range was accompanied by increases in the electron temperature. In contrast to the Ne changes,
the Te increases took place in a limited altitude
range (mainly from 200 km to 300 km).
During the first two heater-on periods from
14:20–14:30 and 14:35–14:45 UT the UHF radar
was scanned between 90◦ and 78◦ (see Figure 35).
30

Figure 35: Altitude-temporal variations of Ne andTe from the EISCAT UHF radar observations during HF heating experiment on 10 October 2011
from 14:20–16:30 UT. X-mode heater-on periods aremarked in the time axis. UHF radar measured in
the magnetic zenith (78◦ ) in all heater-on cycles except for 14:20–14:30 and 14:35–14:45 UT cycles inwhich it was scanned between 78◦ and 90◦ . The
duration of each position was of 5 min.

It was found, that the Ne and Te enhancements
were observed only in the magnetic field-aligned
direction (78◦ ). There were no changes in the vertical direction (90◦ ). It was found that the frequency range, in which extremely strong Ne andTe enhancements occurred under X-mode heating, lies in the interval of fH − fce /2 ≤ fxF2 ≤fH + fce /2. Thus, the frequency range is boundabove by the value of the extraordinary-mode critical frequency fxF2max = fH + fce /2 and below by
fxF2min = fH − fce /2.
It has to be mentioned that the EISCATUHF radar spectra during X-mode HF pumping demonstrate strongly heater-enhanced ionacoustic and plasma lines, which are unusual
for X-mode heating. These heater-enhanced ion
and/or plasma line backscatter enhancements are
typical signatures of parametric decay instability. Figure 36 shows plasma lines obtained fromthe EISCAT UHF radar data in the course of HF
heating experiments, when the X-mode HF pumpwave was radiated towards the MZ.
It is seen from Figure 36 that plasma lines were
excited at the heater frequency of X-mode powerful HF radio wave injected towards the magnetic
zenith. Remember that on 10 October 2011 (Figure 36, left panel) in the first two heater-on peri-Table 1: List of the EISCAT Heating experiments when the strong Ne enhancements accompanied by theincreased Te occurred under X-mode heating of the F-region of the high latitude ionosphere with the use of
the phased array 1.

N

Date

1
2
3
4
5
6
7

7.10.118.10.1110.10.11
11.10.11
12.10.11

Time of observations,UT
16:05–17:00
14:05–15:15
14:20–16.30
17:20–18:30
13:50–15:45
14:50–15:15
15:20–16:30

Total number of “ON”
cycles
4
5
9
5
8
2
5

fH ,
MHz

ERP,
MHz

foF2 ,
MHz

6.77
7.9
7.1
5.423
7.9
7.9
7.1

760
1100
940
520
1100
1100
940

6.2–5.8
7.0–6.5
7.1–5.7
4.8–4.1
7.7–6.7
7.3–7.1
7.1–5.7

Figure 37: The altitude-temporal distribution ofelectron temperature and raw electron density for
X-mode heating at fH =7.1 MHz on 12 October,2011. HF pump wave was radiated towards themagnetic zenith from 15:20 UT by 10 min on, 5 min
off cycles.

Figure 36: Plasma lines obtained from the EISCATUHF radar data in the course of HF heating experiments, when the X-mode HF pump wave wasradiated towards the MZ. Left panel: 10 October,
2011, fH =7.1 MHz; Right panel: 12 October, 2011,
fH =7.1 MHz.

Figure 37 depicts the altitude-temporal distribution of electron temperature and raw electron
density for X-mode heating on 12 October, 2011.
◦
The results, obtained from numerous X-mode
ods the UHF radar was scanned between 78 and90◦ . Similar to the strong Ne enhancements (see HF pumping experiments in the high-latitude F reFigure 35) plasma lines were excited only in the gion of the ionosphere, have shown an evidenceof formation of artificial ducts with strongly enmagnetic zenith.
31

hanced electron density (up to 70 %) in a wide
altitude range up to the upper limit of the UHFradar measurements. The formation of artificial
ducts is accompanied by the electron temperature increases, generation of small-scale artificial
field-aligned irregularities, and heater-enhanced
ion and/or plasma line backscatter enhancements.
It was found that observed Ne enhancements under X-mode HF heating cannot be explained bytemperature-dependent reaction rates. Enhanced
production of ionization by accelerated electrons
is an alternative mechanism for Ne increases induced by an X-mode heating. Fluxes of accelerated electrons can be produced by Langmuir turbulence. Taking into account that an X-mode wave
can not produce the Langmuir waves, it is assumed that the X-mode may first be converted to
the Z- mode, which can induce intense plasma
turbulence above the X-mode reflection altitude.
In addition to processes involving direct electrostatic conversion of the Z-mode wave, the Z-mode
waves can be scattered by AFAIs that, in turn, canalso lead to the producing Langmuir turbulence.
N. F. Blagoveshchenskaya, et al., “Artificial smallscale field-aligned irregularities in the high latitude
F region of the ionosphere induced by an X-mode
HF heater wave”, Geophys. Res. Lett. 38, doi:
10.1029/2011GL046724, 2011.
N. F. Blagoveshchenskaya, et al., “The effects of modification of a high-latitude ionosphere induced by highpower HF radio waves. 1. Results of multi-instrument
ground-based observations”, Radiophysics & Quant.
Electr. 53, 512–531, 2011 (Engl. Transl.).
N. F. Blagoveshchenskaya, et al., “Modification of
the high-latitude ionosphere by high-power HF radio
waves. 2. Results of coordinated satellite and groundbased observations”, Radiophysics & Quant. Electr. 54,
89–101, 2011 (Engl. Transl.).
T. D. Borisova, et al., “ Characteristics of Pc4–5 pulsations obtained using the method of bistatic backscatter of HF radio waves, the EISCAT HF Heating facility, and ground-based magnetometers”, Geomagnetism
and Aeronomy 51, 620–632, 2011 (Engl. Transl.).
N. F. Blagoveshchenskaya, et al.,“Results of Russian experiments dealing with the impact of powerful HF radio
waves on the high latitude ionosphere using EISCAT facilities”, Geomagnetism and Aeronomy, 51, 1109–1120,
2011 (Engl. Transl.).

32

Unusually broadened HF radar spectrafrom heater-induced artificial plasma irregularities
Vickers and Robinson (2011) used the SPEAR
heater and the ESR, in conjunction with the SuperDARN CUTLASS radars, to examine the spectral width of the density irregularities produced by
SPEAR heating (Figure 38). In contrast to normal
heating results, which characteristically show irregularities with very narrow spectra during heating, a broad range of spectral widths was encountered, especially in the data from the CUTLASS Iceland radar, while the spectral widths observed by the CUTLASS Finland Radar remainedlow (Figure 39). The observations were made under disturbed conditions, with fast flows poleward of the heated volume and a flow gradientacross the heated region. The authors attributed
the broad spectral widths in the CUTLASS Iceland data to a combination of the look directionof the radar beams from that site, together with inhomogeneities in the ionospheric velocity within
the heated region.
H. Vickers, and T. Robinson, “Observations of unusually broadened HF radar spectra from heater-induced
artificial plasma irregularities”, J. Geophys. Res. 116,
A05301, doi:10.1029/2010JA015516, 2011.

Investigation of the HF heater induced
effects in the ionosphere
Investigations carried out by the Institute of Radio Astronomy (IRA) in Kharkiv, Ukraine, in 2011were basically directed on studying ionosphericeffects induced by HF heating.
Among themain subjects, one was the “self-scattering” effect consisting in the scattering of the pump radio waves on ionospheric irregularities producedby the same HF emission. Apparently, this effect was first observed in 2002 during simultaneous observations of EISCAT heater signal at threegreatly dispersed sites located in Ukraine, SaintPetersburg and at the Ukrainian Antarctic Station(Zalizovski, et al., 2009). It was found that time
variations in the Doppler frequency shifts of theheater signal measured at the three spaced positions were highly correlated in most cases. Afterthe 2002 experiment, several special measuring
campaigns with the EISCAT and HAARP heaters have been conducted. As a result some additional information about the morphology of theeffect has been obtained (Galushko, et al., 2008).

Figure 39: A scatterplot illustrating the relationship between the Doppler velocity gradient within
the heated volume and the spectral widths measured by Iceland beam 15. The Doppler velocity
gradient measured by the Finland radar (shownby the blue plus signs) was calculated using theobserved range extent of artificial scatter and thedifference between Doppler velocities at the nearand far edges of the artificial backscatter for eachheater-ON period. For the Iceland measurements(shown as red Xs), the Doppler velocity gradient
was calculated by dividing the difference between
the range-averaged line-of-sight velocities measured in beams 13 and 15 by 200 km. This is the approximate spatial separation between the centersof beam 13 and beam 15 at a distance of 2000 km
from the Iceland bore site, with beam separation of
the order of 6.5◦ .

Figure 38: Range-time plots of the SuperDARNFITACF analysis spectral width recorded by the
CUTLASS Iceland radar in (a–c) beams 13, 14,
and 15 and by the CUTLASS Finland radar(d) beam 5 between 1720 and 1830 UT on 30 October 2000.

However, these observations were carried out during the minimum phase of the solar cycle andthe characteristic features of the “self-scattering”
were not so clearly seen as in the first experiment. Since 2011 the solar activity started to increase which stimulated a new measurement campaign with the EISCAT heater to be conducted on
November 1 to 4, 2011. The heater radiated simultaneously at two frequencies separated by 10 Hz
to 10 kHz. It was expected that due to the strong
nonlinear interaction of the pumped waves with
the ionospheric plasma an ion-acoustic turbulence(IAT) will be generated near the reflection point
the incident wave, with the estimated scale-sizesof the IAT ranging from tens of meters to tensof centimeters and velocities about several hundreds of meters per second. To detect such processes the EISCAT UHF radar and digital Doppler HF receivers of IRA NASU were used. The
HF receivers were located at the Radio Astronomy
Observatory (RAO, Ukraine), Ukrainian Antarctic
Station (UAS, Antarctica), Low-Frequency Observatory (LFO, Ukraine), KHO Observatory (Sval-bard) and near the EISCAT heater in Tromsø (Norway). The last three sites operate in unattended
Internet-controlled mode since 2009, 2008 and of
2011, respectively. At Radio Astronomy Observatory an additional three-channel coherent HF receiver designed by IRA was used to provide measurements of angles of arrival of EISCAT heater signal. It should be noted, the “Joint Geospace Research Program by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and EISCAT for 2012–2015” envisages a similar equipment to be installed near
the EISCAT heater in Norway. Totally 15 h of heating and 7.5 h of UHF ISR observations were used.
The operation schedule was as follows: 1 November 14:00–16:30 UT (Heating facility and UHF ISR);
2 November 03:00–05:30 UT (Heating facility), and14:00–15:30 UT (Heating facility and UHF ISR);
3 November 03:00–05:30 UT (Heating facility), and12:30–16:00 UT (Heating facility and UHF ISR);
4 November 03:00–05:30 UT (Heating facility).
Preliminary processing of the observational
data of the November 2011 measurement campaign allowed detecting the “self-scattering” ef33

Figure 40: Spectrogram of the EISCAT heater signal as observed on November 2, 2011 at RAO (top
two panels), UAS (third panel) and in Tromsø (bottom panel) between 03:45 and 04:00 UT.

fect, similar to that observed in 2002. As an example, Figure 40 presents typical spectrograms of
the EISCAT heater signals recorded at the RAO(Ukraine), UAS (Antarctica) and Tromsø (Norway). One can clearly see quasiperiodic variationsin the Doppler frequency shift of the received signals with characteristic period about 10 s occurred
about 03:52 UT. Generally, the spectrograms of
the signal received at UAS differ from those observed at RAO. However, the time intervals where
the “self-scattering” was detected at RAO coincidewith the time moments of increased magnitudesof the scattered signal observed in Antarctic. One
can also see the appearance of the scattered components in the signal observed in Tromsø, at the
distance about 15 km from the heating facility.
Figure 41 presents color-coded Doppler
frequency-time distributions of the azimuth(top panel) and elevation (bottom panel) anglesof the EISCAT heater signal received at RAO.
As can be seen, the spectral components corres34

Figure 41: Doppler frequency-time distributions of
the azimuth (top panel) and elevation angle (bottom panel) of the EISCAT heater signal measured
at RAO between 03:00 and 05:30 UT on November 4, 2011. The angle of arrival magnitudes arecolor-coded (see scale on the right).

ponding to a positive Doppler frequency shiftdemonstrate a 15 min periodicity which effect ismore pronounced in the azimuth angle variations.
Specifically, magnitudes of angles of arrival over
the time intervals when the heater radiated thefull power noticeably differ from those measured
when the probe signal of a lower power wastransmitted alone.
Ukrainian scientists continued a theoretical analysis of possible mechanisms of the “self-scattering
effect” of powerful HF signals in the ionosphere. A paper by V.G. Galushko, V.G. Bezrodny,
A.V. Koloskov, and A.V. Zalizovski on the preliminary results of the study has been submitted to the “Radio Physics and Radio Astonomy”
journal. The paper presents results of numerical simulations which have been performed withthe use of data from the EISCAT incoherent scatter radar. The calculations show that phase pathdeviations at the upgoing segment of the pumpwave trajectory might play the determinative rolein producing synchronous variations in the Doppler frequency shifts of the self-scattered signals
observed in the November 2002 experiments. In
addition the characteristics of HF fields scatteredin aspect-sensitive directions are determined withallowance for the regular refraction effects in theionosphere, and a condition for excitation of theionospheric interlayer duct channel by HF signals
aspect-sensitive scattered in a given direction isanalyzed. The geometrical optics calculations are
made within the Born approximation for an anisotropic power-law model spectrum of random irregularities of the upper ionosphere. It is shownthat the suggested mechanism could provide practically identical HF signal scattering characteristics
toward all the spaced receiving sites involved in
the experiment.
In November 2011 the “Joint Geospace Research Program by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and EISCAT for 2012-2015” wasapproved by the NASU. The Program was announced and endorsed at the 10th EISCAT Science Oversight Committee meeting, Tromsø, Norway, 29–30 March 2012. The principal scientificconcept of the Program is the development anddeployment of new facilities and techniques for3D diagnostics of natural and artificially stimulated ionospheric inhomogeneities in the Arctic region. Some of the facilities have been already put
into operation and are used for making measurements. Small-sized unattended HF receivers were
deployed at Svalbard (2008) and in Tromsø (2011)
to monitor emissions from broadcast radios andheating facilities. In 2009 an additional receiver
was set active in Ukraine at the Low Frequency
Observatory. Data from these instruments havesuccessfully used for studying ionospheric processes during the measuring campaigns in 2009,2010 and 2011. The further steps envisaged by the
Program are as follows:
1. Development and implementation of new
radar-based, GNSS-TEC and radio astronomy
techniques for remote sensing of the near
Earth plasma environment at observatories of
EISCAT and Ukraine.
2.

Development and validation of physicalmodels of ionospheric and magnetosphericdisturbances of natural and artificial origin at
high- and mid-latitudes of the European continent.

The activities proposed by the program include:

1. Study of a variety of natural and stimulated
plasma fluctuations in auroral region andmid-latitudes, particularly, artificial plasma
turbulence, polar mesospheric summer andwinter echoes, field-aligned inhomogeneities
and traveling ionospheric disturbances.
2.

Investigation of mechanisms of top-down(from interplanetary space and Sun) andbottom-up (from Earth’s surface and troposphere) transfer of powerful geospace disturbances.

3. Improvement of the physical models of ionospheric disturbance motion from auroral to
mid-latitude ionosphere.
4. Refinement of models of wave interaction
between neutral and charged atmospheric gas
components.
5. Study of the spatial distribution and intensityof global thunderstorm activity in view of the
global climate changes.
A. V. Zalizovski, et al., “Self-scattering of a powerful
HF radio wave on stimulated ionospheric turbulence”,
Radio Science 44, RS3010, doi:10.1029/2008RS004111,
2009.
V.G. Galushko, et al., “Self-Scattering of the Heater
Emissions Observed at Geographically Dispersed
Receiving sites”, IEEE Antennas and Propagation
Magazine 50, 155–161, 2008.

Angular dependence of pump-induced
bottom- and top-side ionosphericplasma turbulence
Kosch et al. (2011) used the Tromsø radars andthe HF heater, scanning the radar in small steps
to study the location and angular extent of the “Zmode radio window”, through which radio waves
above a certain frequency can propagate beyond
the ionospheric peak. The Heater cycle was deliberately kept low, in order to minimise the growthof field-aligned irregularities. They found that theequatorward radio window had an angular widthof 2◦ to 3◦ , most often appearing 7◦ to 8◦ southof the heater (Figure 42). These properties werebroadly as expected from theory, with the locations of the bottomside radio window and topside
enhanced radar echoes being consistent with the
expected position determined by ray tracing performed on the basis of the observed plasma densities, especially when a tilt was imposed on the35

Figure 43: Increase in electron temperature on August 13, 2009.

Figure 42: Relative backscatter power, not corrected for range, as a function of range and angle
from 6◦ to 12◦ zenith angle south of EISCAT. The
range and angular resolution are 1.8 km and 1◦ , respectively. The first through sixth panels show individual radar scans assembled from 7 HF pumpcycles. The seventh panel shows the average of
all the available data. Data gaps indicate technicalproblems with the radar.

Figure 44: Regression analysis of the temperature
increase for type 1 and type 2 respectively.

ionosphere, consistent with observations obtained
from an HF sounder.
M. J. Kosch, et al., “Angular dependence of pumpinduced bottom- and top-side ionospheric plasma turbulence at EISCAT”, J. Geophys. Res. 116, A03322,
doi:10.1029/2010JA016014, 2011.

Heating induced temperature enhancement in the polar summer ionosphere
The ionospheric heating observation by ISR in August 2009 in Tromsø, Norway, was analyzed as
Figure 43. There are two types of increases inelectron temperature: the increases in a narrow
height range near 150 km and the increases in awide height range at 150 km to 400 km. As shownin Figure 44 obtained by regression analysis, theincrease of temperature in percentage linearly increases with heating power. And the regression
lines are∆T = 0.53P + 4.07(2)
and∆T = 0.15P + 5.60

(3)for type 1 and type 2 respectively.
A clear two-dimensional distribution waspresented for the measurement performed on
August 15. The heating effects obviously dependon the angle offset from the geomagnetic field.
Figure 45 indicates the heating effect function
as the angle offset, where the red line means the36

Figure 45: 2D distribution of electron temperatureinduced by heating on August 15, 2009 (top: type 1,
bottom: type 2)

heating beam and the black one the geomagnetic
field.
The disturbance of ion line spectra induced byionospheric heating (HF frequency 5.423 MHz, reflecting height 214 km, 8 min on and 4 min off) on
13 September 2010, was analyzed. An enhancement of ion line spectra is present near reflected
altitude under the condition of dense heating, asshown in Figure 46, where at 10:58 and 11:08 HF

Figure 48: Contour plots of the change in CNA during heating observed by ARIES (solid lines) andmodelled (dashed lines). The peak modeled CNA
has been scaled to the peak observed CNA in thisplot, in order to compare the morphology rather
than the absolute values. The vertical over theheater is marked by the cross.

Xu Bin, et al., “Heat-induced temperature enhancementin the polar summer ionosphere”, Advance in Polar Science 22(2), 101–110, 2011.
Figure 46: The disturbed ion line at height219.75 km, 216.75 km, 213.75 km, 210.75 km,
207.75 km, 204.75 km and 201.75 km respectively.

Cheng Musong, et al., “Observation of VHF incoherent
scatter spectra disturbed by HF heating”, 15th International EISCAT Workshop, Qingdao China, 5–9 September 2011.

Cosmic noise absorbtion changes due toradio heating of the D region ionosphere

Figure 47: The electron density profile.

was off, at 11:00, 11:02, 11:04 and 11:06 HF was on.
It should be possible that the disturbance of ionline spectra is due to a coherent echo, which canbe the scatting from irregularity of electron density
induced by ionospheric heating indicated by Figure 47.

Senior et al. (2011) studied the way in which artificially heating the D region of the ionosphere
increases the electron-neutral collision frequency,
and hence the amount of radio wave absorption.
They used a high-resolution imaging riometer toestimate the level of absorption for various degrees of heating, and compared the results with atheoretical model which used the measured electron densities as an input (Figure 48). While themodel successfully reproduced the spatial morphology of the absorption, it initially underestimated the absorption level by factor 2. This discrepancy was reduced to around 30 % by using a more
realistic ground conductivity in the modelling of
the heater ERP (Figure 49).
A. Senior, et al., “Measurements of cosmic noise absorbtion changes due to radio heating of the Dregion ionosphere”, J. Geophys. Res., 116, A04310,
doi:10.1029/2010JA016189, 201137

due to heating for the experiment of July 1st 2008.
O-mode polarization is denoted by circles and X- ws,
mode polarization is denoted by crosses. The grey thatcalledpoints with error bars show the observations plotpreference
ted at 75 % of the original ERP.

Theyechos astosugfragdisfragFractional baud-length coding
from
that
the
A novel approach is presented for modulatingsameradar transmissions in order to improve target

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Figure 49: The observed (black points with er- atror bars) and modeled (dashed lines) CAN changeechos

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Time (s)range and Doppler estimation accuracy. Thisis achieved by using non-uniform baud lengths.
With this method it is possible to increase subbaud range-resolution of phase coded radar measesurements while maintaining a narrow transmisamplitude
sion bandwidth. First target backscatterestimation
ampFig. 5. A50:
low-altitude
meteor echo meteor
at 60 km seen
FigureA low-altitude
echowith
at the60EISkmlitude estimation error covariance matrix for showarseenwith
the
EISCAT
UHF
radar
on
19
Novemberbitrary targets are derived when estimating backs2009 at 05:16 UT during a low-elevation meteor excatter in amplitude domain. Target optimality
periment. The meteor echo can be seen deceleratis defined and different search strategies are dising from 1 km/s down to 0 km/s, and then echoes
cussed that can be used to find well performfrom a trail-like structure are seen for a while. The
ing transmission envelopes. Several simulated exthree top panels show the results from moving
amples of the method are given showing that fracpoint-target model that determines the most likely
tional baud-length coding results in smaller esrange, Doppler shift and power of a point target.
timation errors than conventional uniform baud
The fourth panel shows the range resolved backslength transmission codes when estimating thecatter power from a spread target model. After the
initial head echo, many layers appear at altitudes
target backscatter amplitude at sub-baud range
above the initial detection. Most of the layers show
resolution. The method is also demonstrated in
100 m to 400 m range spread.
practice by analysing the range resolved power ofa low-altitude meteor trail echo that was measured
using a fractional baud-length experiment with Meteor head echo polarization at
the EISCAT UHF system (Figure 50).
930 MHz studied with the EISCATUHF HPLA radar
J.-P. Vierinen, “Fractional baud-length coding”, Ann.
Geophys. 29, 1189–1196, 2011.

38

The polarisation characteristics of 930 MHz meteor head echoes have been studied for the firstFigure 51: Showing the passage of a typical headecho target through the common scattering volume
at Q in 0.6 µs time resolution. Top left panel shows
the full event in raw amplitude format. The timeinterval between successive radar pulses is 1656 µs
and the event lasts for 30 pulses or about 50 ms (thefirst four pulses are not shown). Top right panel
shows the development of the scattered signal during a single 76.8 µs radar pulse (pulse number 10,
counting from the left). Bottom panel shows the
V-H amplitude ratio during the same pulse.

time, using data obtained in a series of radar measurements carried out with the tristatic EISCATUHF high power, large aperture (HPLA) radarsystem in October 2009. An analysis of 44 tristatic head echo events shows that the polarisation of the echo signal recorded by the Kiruna receiver often fluctuates strongly on time scales oftens of microseconds, illustrating that the scattering process is essentially stochastic (Figure 51).
On longer timescales (larger than milliseconds),
more than 90 % of the recorded events show anaverage polarisation signature that is independentof meteor direction of arrival and echo strengthand equal to that of an incoherent-scatter returnfrom underdense plasma filling the tristatic observation volume. This shows that the head echo
plasma targets scatter isotropically, which in turnimplies that they are much smaller than the 33 cm
wavelength and close to spherically symmetric, invery good agreement with results from a previous
EISCAT UHF study of the head echo RCS/meteor
angle-of-incidence relationship.
Significant polarisation is present in only three
events with unique target trajectories. These allshow a larger effective target cross section transverse to the trajectory than parallel to it. It is proposed that the observed polarisation may be a signature of a transverse charge separation plasma

Figure 52: Averaged all-sky images of the aurora
with F region ion (yellow) flow vectors overlaid
for (a) 2312–2330 UT, (b) 2336–2354 UT, (c) 2436–
2454 UT and with E region ion (yellow) and neutral(blue) flow vectors overlaid for (d) 2336–2354 UT
and (e) 2436–2454 UT on 2 February 2010. The
green vectors are modelled without line-of-sightdata.

resonance in the region immediately behind themeteor head, similar to the resonance effects previously discussed in connection with meteor trail
echoes by Herlofson, Billam and Browne, Jonesand Jones and others.
G. Wannberg, A. Westman, and A. Pellinen-Wannberg,“Meteor head echo polarization at 930 MHz studied
with the EISCAT UHF HPLA radar”, Ann. Geophys.
29, 1197–1208, doi:10.5194/angeo-29-1197-2011, 2011.

Joule heating near an auroral arc andion-neutral collision frequency in thepolar cap E region
Kosch et al. (2011) reported on the first combined mesoscale ionospheric and thermosphericobservations, obtained partly in the vicinity ofan auroral arc. The EISCAT Svalbard Radar wasscanned in a novel observing mode, to obtain
E and F region velocities in an annulus centred on
39

Figure 53: The spatial distribution of Joule heatingin 22.5◦ sectors about Longyearbyen projected to
110 km for (a) 2312–2330 UT, (b) 2336–2354 UT, and(c) 2436–2454 UT on 2 February 2010. In the twolower panels, the aurora is overlaid for 110 km altitude.

the radar. At the same time, the Scanning Doppler Imager observed E-region winds and temperatures using 557.7 nm optical emissions (Figure 52). Combining the ion and neutral density
observations permitted the E region Joule heating
to be estimated with an azimuthal spatial resolution of ∼64 km at a radius of ∼163 km from theradar. The results showed that the Joule heating of the polar thermosphere contained significant mesoscale structure (Figure 53), while the average ion-neutral collision frequency at the altitudeof the emission (∼113 km) was in good agreementwith current MSIS model.
M. J. Kosch, et al., “Mesoscale observations of Joule
heating near an auroral arc and ion-neutral collision frequency in the polar cap E region”, J. Geophys. Res. 116,
A05321,doi:10.1029/2010JA016015, 2011.

40

List of publications 2011
Amm, O., R. Nakamura, T. Takada, K. Kauristie, H.U.
Frey, C.J. Owen, A. Aikio, and R. Kuula, Observationsof an auroral streamer in a double oval configuration,
Ann. Geophys., 29, 701-716, doi:10.5194/angeo-29-7012011, 2011.

Results of coordinated satellite and ground-based observations, Radiophys. & Quant. Electr., 54, 2, 89-101,
DOI: 10.1007/s11141-011-9273-9 2011. (Translated from
Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika,
54, 2, pp. 97-112, February 2011).

Amm, O., R. Fujii, K. Kauristie, A. Aikio, A. Yoshikawa,
A. Ieda, and H. Vanhamäki, A statistical investigationof the Cowling channel efficiency in the auroral zone, J.
Geophys. Res., 116, A02304, doi:10.1029/2010JA015988,
2011.

Borisova, T. D., N. F. Blagoveshchenskaya, V. A. Kornienko, and M. T. Rietveld, Characteristics of Pc4-5 Pulsations Obtained Using the Method of Bistatic Backscatter of HF Radio Waves, the EISCAT HF Heating Facility,
and Ground-Based Magnetometers, Geomagnetism andAeronomy, ISSN 0016-7932, 51, 5, 620-632, 2011.

Archer, J., H. Dahlgren, N. Ivchenko, B.S. Lanchester,
G.T. Marklund:/Dynamics and characteristics of black
aurora as observed by high resolution ground-based
imagers and radar, Int. J. Remote Sens., 32, 2973-2985,
doi:10.1080/01431161.2010.541517, 2011.
Barthélémy, M., J. Lilensten, F. Pitout, C. Simon Wedlund, R. Thissen, D. Lorentzen, F. Sigernes, J. Moen, G.
Gronoff, I. McCrea, H. Rothkael, H. Ménager, and A.
Aruliah, Polarisation in the auroral red line during coordinated EISCAT Svalbard Radar/optical experiments,
Ann. Geophys., 29, 1101-1112, 2011.
Biebricher, A., Numerical Analysis of Polar Mesosphere
Summer and Winter Echoes: The Overshoot Effect, Ph.
D. thesis, University of Tromsø, Norway, 2011.
Blagoveshchenskaya, N. F., T. D. Borisova, M. T. Rietveld, T. K. Yeoman, D. M. Wright, M. Rother, H. Lühr,
E. V. Mishin, and C. Roth, Results of Russian Experiments Dealing with the Impact of Powerful HF Radiowaves on the High-Latitude Ionosphere Using the
EISCAT Facilities, Geomagnetism and Aeronomy, ISSN
0016-7932, 51, 8, 1109-1120, 2011.
Blagoveshchenskaya, N.F., T.D. Borisova, T.K. Yeoman,
M.T. Rietveld, I.M. Ivanova, and L.J. Baddeley, Artificial small-scale field-aligned irregularities in the highlatitude F region of the ionosphere induced by an Xmode HF heater wave, Geophys. Res. Lett., 38, L08802,
doi:10.1029/2011GL046724, 2011.
Blagoveshchenskaya, N. F., T. D. Borisova, V. A. Kornienko, M. T. Rietveld, T. K. Yeoman, D. M. Wright, M.
Rother, H. Lühr, E. V. Mishin and C. Roth, V.L. Frolov, M. Parot, J.L. Rauch, Modification of the highlatitude ionosphere by high-power hf radio waves. 2.

Cai, H. T., F. Yin, S. Y. Ma, and I. W. McCrea, Observations of AGW/TID propagation across the polar cap: acase study, Ann. Geophys., 29, 1355-1363, 2011.
Dahlgren, H., B. Gustavsson, B. S. Lanchester, N.
Ivchenko, U. Brandstrom, D. K. Whiter, T. Sergienko, I.
Sandahl, and G. Marklund, Energy and flux variations
across thin auroral arcs, Ann. Geophys., 29, 1699-1712,
doi:10.5194/angeo-29-1699-2011, 2011.
Ekeberg, J., Solitary Waves and Enhanced Incoherent
Scatter Ion Lines, Doctoral Thesis, University of Umeå,Kiruna, Sweden, 2011.
Enell, C.-F., J. Hedin, J. Stegman, G. Witt, M. Friedrich,
W. Singer, G. Baumgarten, B. Kaifler, U.-P. Hoppe, B.
Gustavsson, U. Brändström, M. Khaplanov, A. Kero, T.
Ulich, E. Turunen, The Hotel Payload 2 campaign: Overview of NO, O and electron density measurements inthe upper mesosphere and lower thermosphere, J. Atmos. Sol. Terr. Phys., 73, 14-15, 2228-2236, 2011.
Fontdecaba i Baig, J., F. Martinerie, M. Sutter, V. Martinot, E. Fletcher, Radar Tracking Campaigns for ESA
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Conference, Madrid, 7-9 June 2011.
Friedrich, M. and G. Landauer, An extension forthe model IMAZ for large absorption, Earth Planets Space, Earth Planets Space, 63, 4, 383-390,
doi:10.5047/eps.2010.12.008, 2011.
Havnes, O., C. La Hoz, M. T. Rietveld, M. B. Kassa, G.
Baroni, and A. Biebricher, Dust charging and density
conditions deduced from observations of PMWE modulated by artificial electron heating, J. Geophys. Res., 116,
D24203, doi:10.1029/2011JD016411, 2011.

41

Honary, F., N. Borisov, M. Beharrell, and A. Senior,
Temporal development of the magnetic zenith effect, J.
Geophys. Res., 116, A06309, doi:10.1029/2010JA016029,
2011.
Hultqvist, B., History of EISCAT - Part 1: On the early
history of EISCAT with special reference to the Swedish
part of it, Hist. Geo Space. Sci., 2, doi:10.5194/hgss-2115-2011, 115-121, 2011.
Kieser, J., The influence of precipitating solar andmagnetospheric energetic charged particles on the entire atmosphere: Simulations with HAMMONIA, Ph.D.
thesis, University of Hamburg, Germany, 2011.
Kitamura, N., Y. Ogawa, Y. Nishimura, N. Terada, T.
Ono, A. Shinbori, A. Kumamoto, V. Truhlik, and J.
Smilauer, Solar zenith angle dependence of plasma
density and temperature in the polar cap ionosphereand low-altitude magnetosphere during geomagnetically quiet periods at solar maximum, J. Geophys. Res.,
116, A08227, doi:10.1029/2011JA016631, 2011.
Kosch, M.J., E. Mjølhus, M. Ashrafi, M.T. Rietveld, T.
Yeoman and S. Nozawa, Angular dependence of pumpinduced bottom- and top-side ionospheric plasma turbulence at EISCAT, J. Geophys. Res., 116, A03322, 9 PP.,
doi:10.1029/2010JA016014, 2011.
Kosch, M. J., I. Yiu, C. Anderson, T. Tsuda, Y. Ogawa,S. Nozawa, A. Aruliah, V. Howells, L. J. Baddeley, I. W.
McCrea, and J. A. Wild, Mesoscale observations of Joule
heating near an auroral arc and ion-neutral collision frequency in the polar cap E region, J. Geophys. Res., 116,
A05321, doi:10.1029/2010JA016015, 2011.
Lanchester, B., O.-P. Jokiaho, M. Galand, N. Ivchenko,
D. Lummerzheim, J. Baumgardner, and S. Chakrabarti, Separating and quantifying ionospheric responses
to proton and electron precipitation over Svalbard, J.
Geophys. Res., 116, A09322, doi:10.1029/2011JA016474,
2011.
Li, Q., Multi-frequency radar observations of polar mesosphere summer echoes: Statistical properties
and microphysical results, Ph.D. thesis, University of
Rostock, Germany, 2011.
Li, Q., M. Rapp, PMSE-observations with the EISCATVHF and UHF-radars: Statistical properties, J. Atmos.
Sol. Terr. Phys., 73, 9, 944-956, 2011.
Lukianova, R., and A. Kozlovsky, IMF By effects in theplasma flow at the polar cap boundary, Ann. Geophys.,
29, 1305-1315, 2011.
Mahmoudian, A. W. A. Scales, M. J. Kosch, A. Senior,and M. Rietveld, Dusty space plasma diagnosis using

42

temporal behavior of polar mesospheric summer echoes
during active modification, Ann. Geophys., 29, 21692179, 2011.
Mikhailov, A.V. and T.Yu. Leschinskaya, Ionospheric
altitude profiles in the main ionospheric trough as observed by field-aligned EISCAT incoherent scatter radarobservations, J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 73, 4, 488-498,
doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2010.11.007, 2011.
Nygrén, T., A.T. Aikio, R. Kuula, and M. Voiculescu,
Electric fields and neutral winds from monostatic
incoherent scatter measurements by means of
stochastic inversion, J. Geophys. Res., 116, A05305,
doi:10.1029/2010JA016347, 2011.
Ogawa, Y., S.C. Buchert, I. Häggström, M.T. Rietveld,
R. Fujii, S. Nozawa, and H. Miyaoka, On the statistical relation between ion upflow and naturally enhanced ion-acoustic lines observed with the EISCAT
Svalbard radar, J. Geophys. Res., 16, A03313, 12 PP.,
doi:10.1029/2010JA015827, 2011.
Oksman, J., History of EISCAT - Part 2: The early history of EISCAT in Finland, Hist. Geo Space. Sci., 2,
doi:10.5194/hgss-2-123-2011, 123-128, 2011.
Oyama, S., A. Brekke, T. T. Tsuda, J. Kurihara, andB. J. Watkins, Variance of the vertical ion speed
measured with the European Incoherent Scatter (EISCAT) UHF radar in the polar lower ionosphereat Tromsø, Norway, J. Geophys. Res., 116, A00K06,
doi:10.1029/2010JA016129, 2011.
Partamies, N., L. Juusola, E. Tanskanen, K. Kauristie, J.
M. Weygand, and Y. Ogawa, Substorms during different
storm phases, Ann. Geophys., 29, 2031-2043, 2011.
Pellinen-Wannberg, A., The Radio Physics of Meteors:
High Resolution Radar Methods Offering New Insights,
Radio Science Bulletin, 339, 32-45, 2011, 2011.
Pitkänen, T., A.T. Aikio, O. Amm, K. Kauristie, H. Nilsson, and K.U. Kaila, EISCAT-Cluster observations ofquiet-time near-Earth magnetotail fast flows and theirsignatures in the ionosphere, Ann. Geophys., 29, 299319, 299-319, 2011.
Rapp, M., L. Leitert, R. Latteck, M. Zecha, P. Hoffmann,
J. Höffner, U.-P. Hoppe, C. La Hoz, and E.V. Thrane,
Localized mesosphere-stratosphere-troposphere radar
echoes from the E region at 69◦ N: Properties andphysical mechanisms, J. Geophys. Res., 116, A02320,
doi:10.1029/2010JA016167, 2011.
Rinne, Y., J. Moen, J.B.H. Baker, and H.C. Carlson,
Convection surrounding mesoscale ionosphericflow channels, J. Geophys. Res., 116, A05213,
doi:10.1029/2010JA015997, 2011.

Routledge, Graham , Polar mesospheric summer echoes- studied by active radio wave experiments, PhD thesis,
University of Lancaster, UK, 16 March 2011.
Routledge, G., M.J. Kosch, A. Senior, A.J. Kavanagh,
I.W. McCrea and M.T. Rietveld, A statistical survey of electron temperature enhancements in heater
modulated polar mesospheric summer echoes at EISCAT, J. Atmos. Solar-Terr. Phys., 73, 4, 472-482,
doi:10.1016/j.jastp.2010.11.004, 2011.
Senior, A., M.T. Rietveld, F. Honary, W. Singer, and
M. J. Kosch, Measurements and Modelling of Cosmic
Noise Absorption Changes due to Radio Heating of
the D-Region Ionosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 116, A04310,
doi:10.1029/2010JA016189, 2011.
Skjæveland, Å., J. Moen, and H. C. Carlson , On
the relationship between flux transfer events, temperature enhancements, and ion upflow events inthe cusp ionosphere, J. Geophys. Res., 116, A10305,
doi:10.1029/2011JA016480, 2011.
Sojka, J.J., M. Nicolls, A. van Eyken, C. Heinselman and
D. Bilitza, 24/7 Solar minimum polar cap and auroral
ion temperature observations, Adv. Space Res., 48, 1, 111, dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr.2011.03.005, 2011.
Strelnikova, I., M. Rapp, Majority of PMSE spectral
widths at UHF and VHF are compatible with a single
scattering mechanism, Journal of Atmospheric andSolar-Terrestrial Physics, 73, 14-15, 2142-2152, 2011.
Tanaka, Y.-M., T. Aso, B. Gustavsson, K. Tanabe,
Y. Ogawa, A. Kadokura, H. Miyaoka, T. Sergienko,
U. Brändström, and I. Sandahl, Feasibility study
on Generalized-Aurora Computed Tomography, Ann.
Geophys., 29, 551-562, 2011.
Vickers, Hannah, Radar Observations of Artificial Ionospheric Modification Effects, PhD thesis, University ofLeicester, 2011.
Vickers, H. M. S., and L. J. Baddeley, An alternative estimation of the RF-enhanced plasma temperature during SPEAR artificial heating experiments: Early results, J. Geophys. Res., 116, A11323,
doi:10.1029/2011JA016795, 2011.

Vickers, H., and T. Robinson, Observations of unusuallybroadened HF radar spectra from heater-induced artificial plasma irregularities, J. Geophys. Res., 116, A05301,
doi:10.1029/2010JA015516, 2011.
Vierinen, J., Fractional baud-length coding, Ann. Geophys., 29, 1189-1196, doi:10.5194/angeo-29-1189-2011,
2011.
Vlasov, A., K. Kauristie, M. van de Kamp, J.-P. Luntama, and A. Pogoreltsev, A study of Traveling Ionospheric Disturbances and Atmospheric Gravity Waves
using EISCAT Svalbard Radar IPY-data, Ann. Geophys.,
29, 2101-2116, 2011.
Wannberg, G., A. Westman, and A. Pellinen-Wannberg,
Meteor head echo polarization at 930 MHz studied with
the EISCAT UHF HPLA radar, Ann. Geophys., 29, 11971208, doi:10.5194/angeo-29-1197-2011, 2011.
Wissing, Jan Maik, Analysis of particle precipitation anddevelopment of the Atmospheric Ionization Module
OSnabrück AIMOS, Ph. D. Thesis, University of Osnabruck, Germany, 2011.
Wissing, J.M., M.-B. Kallenrode, J. Kieser and H.
Schmidt, M.T. Rietveld, A. Strømme, P. J. Erickson, Atmospheric Ionization Module OSnabruck (AIMOS) 3: Comparison of electron density simulations by AIMOS/HAMMONIA and incoherent scatter radar measurements, J. Geophys. Res., 116, A08305,
doi:10.1029/2010JA016300, 2011.
Zhang, Q.-H., B.-C. Zhang, R.-Y. Liu, M. W. Dunlop,
M. Lockwood, J. Moen, H.-G. Yang, H.-Q. Hu, Z.-J.
Hu, S.-L. Liu, I. W. McCrea, and M. Lester, On the importance of interplanetary magnetic field |By| on polar cap patch formation, J. Geophys. Res., 116, A05308,
doi:10.1029/2010JA016287, 2011.
Zhang, Q.-H., M. W. Dunlop, R.-Y. Liu, H.-G. Yang, H.Q. Hu, B.-C. Zhang, M. Lester, Y. V. Bogdanova, I. W.
McCrea, Z.-J. Hu, S. R. Crothers, C. La Hoz, and C. P.
Nielsen, Coordinated Cluster/Double Star and groundbased observations of dayside reconnection signatures
on 11 February 2004, Ann. Geophys., 29, 1827-1847,
2011.

43

EISCAT Operations 2011
The EISCAT radars operate in two basic modes,
using approximately half the available observing
time for each. In the Special Programme mode,
users conduct individual experiments dedicatedto specific experiments and objectives. The resulting data are reserved for the exclusive use of theexperimenters for one year from the date of collection. Special programmes often make use of
the well developed pulse schemes and observing
modes of the Common Programme. EISCAT Common Programmes are conducted for the benefit of
the entire user community and the resulting data
are immediately available to all. The Common
Programme modes are developed and maintainedby EISCAT staff, and the overall programme ismonitored by the Scientific Oversight Committee(SOC). Common Programme operations are often conducted as part of the coordinated WorldDay programme organised by the International
Union of Radio Scientists (URSI) Incoherent Scatter Working Group (ISWG).
Common Programme One, CP-1, uses a fixedtransmitting antenna, pointing along the geomagnetic field direction. The three-dimensional velocity and anisotropy in other parameters are measured by means of the receiving stations at Kiruna
and Sodankylä (see map, inside front cover). CP-1
is capable of providing results with very good time
resolution and is suitable for the study of substorm
phenomena, particularly auroral processes whereconditions might change rapidly. The basic time
resolution is 5 s. Continuous electric field measurements are derived from the tri-static F-region
data. On longer time scales, CP-1 measurements
support studies of diurnal changes, such as atmospheric tides, as well as seasonal and solar-cycle
variations. The observation scheme uses alternating codes for spectral measurements.
Common Programme Two, CP-2, is designed tomake measurements from a small, rapid transmitter antenna scan. One aim is to identify wave-likephenomena with length and time scales comparable with, or larger than, the scan (a few tens ofkilometers and about ten minutes). The present
version consists of a four-position scan which is
44completed in six minutes. The first three positions
form a triangle with vertical, south, and south-east
positions, while the fourth is aligned with the geomagnetic field. The remote site antennas provide
three-dimensional velocity measurements in the Fregion. The pulse scheme is identical with that of
CP-1.
Common Programme Three, CP-3, covers a 10◦
latitudinal range in the F-region with a 17-position
scan up to 74◦ N in a 30 min cycle. The observations are made in a plane defined by the magnetic meridian through Tromsø, with the remotesite antennas making continuous measurements at
275 km altitude. The coding scheme uses alternating codes. The principle aim of CP-3 is the mapping of ionospheric and electrodynamic parameters over a broad latitude range.
Common Programmes One, Two, and Three are
run on the UHF radar. Three further programmes
are designed for use with the VHF system. The
UHF and VHF radars are often operated simultaneously during the CP experiments. Such observations offer comprehensive data sets for atmospheric, ionospheric, and magnetospheric studies.
Common Programme Four, CP-4, covers geographic latitudes up to almost 80◦ N (77◦ N invariant latitude) using a low elevation, split-beam configuration. CP-4 is particularly suitable for studies
of high latitude plasma convection and polar cap
phenomena. However, with the present one-beamconfiguration of the VHF radar, CP-4 is run witheither both UHF and VHF radars or with UHF
only in a two position scan.
Common Programme Six, CP-6, is designed for
low altitude studies, providing spectral measurements at mesospheric heights. Velocity and electron density are derived from the measurements
and the spectra contain information on the aeronomy of the mesosphere. Vertical antenna pointing is used.
Common Programme Seven, CP-7, probes highaltitudes and is particularly aimed at polar windstudies. The present version, with only one of
the VHF klystrons running, is designed to coverIngemar Häggström, EISCAT head of operations, demonstrating the pointing direction of the test array fromthe EISCAT_3D Design Study.

altitudes up to 1500 km vertically above Ramfjordmoen.
Equivalent Common Programme modes areavailable for the EISCAT Svalbard Radar. CP-1
is directed along the geomagnetic field (81.6◦ inclination). CP-2 uses a four position scan. CP-3
is a 15 position elevation scan with southerly
beam swinging positions. CP-4 combines observations in the F-region viewing area with fieldaligned and vertical measurements. Alternatingcode pulse schemes have been used extensively

for each mode to cover ranges of approximately
80 km to 1200 km with integral clutter removal below 150 km. CP-6 is similar to the mainland radar
CP-6.
The tables on the next pages summarise the accounted hours on the various facilities for eachmonth and for each Common Programme mode
(CP) or Associate (SP).
Dr. Ingemar Häggström
Senior Scientist, EISCAT Scientific Association

45

2011

KST COMMON PROGRAMMES
2011
CP1
CP2
CP3
CP4
CP6
CP7
UP1
UP2
UP3
Total
%

Jan
0.5

Feb

Mar

Apr
May
0.5

1
218.5

62

0.5
0

219.5
26

62
7

0.5
0

Jun

Jul
4.5
2
8.5

1

75

1
0

75
9

15
2

Aug

Sept

Oct
3.5

Nov

299
0.5

299
35

61.5

3
0.5

61.5
7

7.5
1

80.5

80.5
9

Dec
Total
0.5
10.5
16 535.5
12 101.5
0
202.5
0.5
0
0
0
28.5 850.5
3
100

%

Target%
1
16
63
16
12
12
0
10
24
20
0
18
0
0
0
100

KST SPECIAL PROGRAMMES
2011
CN
FI
GE
NI
NO
SW
UK
AA
Total
%

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May
57

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov
32.5

12
7.5
5
152
23
31.5

24

18.5
24
3

0
0
EI

12
2
CN
6.7

Target

0
0
FI
11.4

75.5
10
GE
6.56

0
0
NI
13.41

13
4.5

219
30
NO
25.91

0
0
SW
18.6

4.5
1

13
2

83
28
6
42.5
192
27

Dec
88.5
53.5
29.5
11

182.5
25

Total Incl AA Target
89.5
90
60
100.5
101
102
61
61
59
141.5
142
120
191
191
232
42
42
167
97
97
156
0
722.5
723
896
100

UK
17.43 %KST OTHER PROGRAMMES
2011
PP
EI
RU
TB
Total

Jan

Feb

Mar
6

Apr

May
23

1

Jun
30

Jul

0

89

29
46

Dec
Total Target
92
17.5
77.5
30
4
21
170
163.5
65
65
357
21.5
327

Aug
Sept
299
61.5
0
4.5
0
0
299
66

Oct
7.5
13
89
109.5

Nov
80.5
192
46
318.5

Dec
Total Target
28.5 850.5
825
182.5 722.5
896
21.5
327
357
232.5
1900
2078

Oct
55
10
44
3
7
6

Nov
176.5
67
60
63.5

Dec
Total Target
111 896.5
867
83.5 497.5
801
32
269
260
23 952.5600
3.5 188.5
152
932
1535
58

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov
17

74.5
0

36
42

75.5

89
0

23

30

0

0

KST CUMULATIVE TOTALS
2011
CP
SP
OP
Total

Jan
0.5
24
0
24.5

Feb
Mar
219.5
62
0
12
42
75.5
261.5 149.5

Apr
May
0.5
1
0
75.5
0
23
0.5
99.5

Jun
75
0
30
105

Jul
15
219
0
234

USAGE BREAKDOWN
2011
UHF
VHF
Heating
Passive UHF
Bolt array
ESR
Passive ESR

Jan
20

15.5
126

Feb
Mar
166.5
40.5
20
74.5
2
34.5
291.5
279

105.5

Apr
May
0.5
29.5
20
31.5
74
21

10.5
56

Jun
20
75
40
49
64
2

Jul
79
86
65
21
66
6.5

Aug
Sept
198
61.5
404
0

46

17
63
0

161.5

2011

ESR COMMON PROGRAMMES
2011
CP1
CP2
CP3
CP4
CP6
CP7
UP1
UP2
UP3
Total
%

Jan
1.5

Feb

Mar

Apr

May
8

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sept

Oct

2

1

Nov
55

144
4.5

1.5
0

144
39

62.5

1

1

58

62.5
17

9
2

3
1

6.5
64.5
18

0
0

0
0

0
0

1
0

59.5
16

Dec
Total
20.5
88
144
4.5
0
122.5
0
0
0
6.5
20.5 365.5
6
100

%

Target%
24
54
39
16
1
12
0
10
34
0
0
0
2
100

ESR SPECIAL PROGRAMMES
2011
CN
FI
GE
NI
NO
SW
UK
AA
Total
%

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

Dec

11

61.5

3
33
12
12

53.5
1

71
19

116
31

2
21
15
15
7.5

12
27.5

58.5
15

64
17

43

1.5

24.5

14
43
11

0
0

5

3

14
4

0
0

6.5
2

0
0

0
0

5
1

Total Incl AA Target
0
0
40
72.5
73
68
2
2
39
89.5
90
80
126
126
154
27
27
111
61
61
104
0
378
378
596
100

ESR OTHER PROGRAMMES
2011
PP
EI
RU
TB
Total

Jan

Feb
Mar
25.5

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sept

Oct

Nov

0

20
11
31

Dec
Total Target
14.5
40
93
0
20
32
20
1
131
131
15.5
203
264

1
5
0
6

Nov
59.5
71
31
161.5

Dec
Total Target
20.5 365.5
675
116
378
596
15.5
203
264
152 946.5
1535

12
66
66

45.5
71

0

12

7.5
7.5

0

0

0

0

ESR CUMULATIVE TOTALS
2011
CP
SP
OP
Total

Jan
1.5
58.5
66
126

Feb
Mar
144
62.5
64
43
71
0
279 105.5

Apr
9
0
12
21

May
3
14
7.5
24.5

Jun
64.5
0
0
64.5

Jul

47

0
6.5
0
6.5

Aug

Sept
0
0
0
0

Oct
0
0
0
0

EISCAT organisational diagram, December 2011.

48

Hosts

Instruments

Sites

Headquarters

Council andCommittees

University of Oulu/SGO

Sodankylä

DFG
Germany

DeutscheForschungsgemeinschaft

STEL
Japan

Heating

UHF

Headquarters

Tromsø

IRF Kiruna

NIPR
National Institute ofPolar Research

NFR

VHF

NorwayNorgesforskningsråd

VR
SwedenVetenskapsrådet

United Kingdom

National
Environment
Research Council

NERC

NTIFIC AS
IE

ESR

Longyearbyen

CAG
Council Advisory
Group

University of Tromsø

EISCAT Council

Japan

Solar Terrestrial
Environment
Laboratory, Nagoya

KirunaSOC
Science OversightCommittee

Finland

China

SA
Suomen Akatemia

China
Research Institute ofRadiowave Propagation

CRIRP

CAT S
C
EIS

Funding
Agencies

CIATIONSO

EISCAT Scientific Association
December 2011
Council

Director

The Council consists of a Delegation with a maximumof three persons from each Associate. Germany leaves
EISCAT Scientific Association at the end of 2011.

Dr. E. Turunen

P. R. of China
Prof. Q. Dong
Prof. J. Wu
Finland
Dr. A. Aikio
Dr. K. Kauristie
Dr. K. Sulonen
Germany
Prof. J. Röttger
Dr. K. ZachJapan
Dr. H. Miyaoka
Dr. S. Nozawa
NorwayProf. A. Brekke
Dr. B. Jacobsen
Dr. L. Lønnum
SwedenDr. T. Andersson
Prof. D. Murtagh
United Kingdom
Dr. I. McCrea
Dr. M. Schultz

Council Advisory GroupThe Council Advisory Group (CAG) prepares matters to
be brought to the Council.

Vice-Chairperson, Delegate

Dr. A. Aikio
Mr. H. Andersson
Dr. T. Andersson
Prof. A. Brekke
Dr. I. McCrea
Dr. H. Miyaoka
Dr. E. Turunen

Delegate
Delegate
Delegate

Council Member
Head of Administration
Council Chairperson
Council Member
Council Member
Council Member
Director

Executives
Senior Management

Delegate

Mr. H. Andersson
Dr. E. Turunen

Head of Adm., Deputy Dir.
Director

Chairperson, Delegate

Site Leaders
Station Managers

Delegate

Scientific Oversight Committee
The EISCAT scientific community organises the Scientific Oversight Committee (SOC), under the guidanceof the Council.
Dr. N. BlagoveshchenskayaDr. S. Buchert
Dr. J. Chau
Dr. M. Kosch
Prof. C. La Hoz
Prof. R. Liu
Dr. Y. Ogawa
Prof. J. Röttger
Dr. T. Ulich

External member
SwedenExternal member
United Kingdom
Chairperson, Norway
P. R. of China
Japan
Germany
Finland49

Mr. H. Boholm
Mr. R. Jacobsen
Mr. J. Markkanen
Dr. M. Rietveld
Mr. L.-G. Vanhainen

EISCAT Svalbard Radar
Tromsø Radar
Sodankylä Site
Tromsø Heating
Kiruna Site

EISCAT staff and invited guests at the Annual Review Meeting and 30 year celebrations, 23–26 August 2011,at Svalbard. Picture taken at the Hansbreen glacier, Hornsund.

Appendix:
EISCAT Scientific Association
Annual Report, 2011

51

EISCAT Scientific Association Annual Report 2011

EISCAT Scientific Association
Registered as a Swedish non-profit organisation
Organisation number: 897300-2549
Annual report for the financial year 2011-01-01 – 2011-12-31
The EISCAT Council and the Director for the Association submits herewith the annual reportfor 2011.
Content
Administration report
Profit and loss accounts
Balance sheet
Statement of cash flows
Notes

Page
1
5
6
7
8

52

EISCAT Scientific Association Annual Report 2011

ADMINISTRATION REPORT
Ownership, organisation and objective
The EISCAT Scientific Association was established in 1975 through an agreement between six
European organisations. Japan joined in 1996 and the Peoples Republic of China in 2007.
The EISCAT Associates at 2011-12-31 are: China Research Institute of Radiowave Propagation(Peoples Republic of China), Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany), National
Institute of Polar Research (Japan), Natural Environment Research Council (United Kingdomof Great Britain and Northern Ireland), Norges forskningsråd (Norway), Solar-Terrestrial
Environment Laboratory, Nagoya University (Japan), Suomen Akatemia (Finland), andVetenskapsrådet (Sweden).
A new EISCAT Agreement came into force 2007-01-01, with all Associates making long term
funding commitments to the Association. The Association has its formal seat in Kiruna,
Sweden, and is registered as a non-profit organisation.
The aim of the Association is to make significant progress in the understanding of physicalprocesses in the high latitude atmosphere by means of experimental programmes generally
conducted using the incoherent scatter radar technique, which may be carried out as part ofwider international projects. For this purpose, the Association has developed, constructed,
and now operates, a number of radar facilities at high latitudes. At present, these comprise asystem of stations at Tromsö (Norway), Kiruna (Sweden), Sodankylä (Finland), andLongyearbyen (Svalbard).
The Association is fully funded by the Associates but additional operations may also be
funded by short term additional contributions from both Associate and non-Associatebodies. Depending on the available funding, scientific priorities and operational targets areadjusted on an annual basis.
The EISCAT Council is charged with the overall administration and supervision of the
Association's activities. The Council appoints a Director, who is responsible for the daily
management and operation of the facilities of the Association.
Operation and scientific development
The EISCAT Radars delivered a full programme of operations for the user community andoperated reliably throughout the year with only some interruptions due to equipment oroperational problems.
The various EISCAT radars operated for a total of 2 846 accounted hours (3 496 hours in2010).
The UHF tristatic mode of operation had to be phased out in November after a Finnish
mobile operator started to use a newly deployed GSM base station 6.1 km away from the
Sodankylä site and thus effectively blocking the UHF frequency band from then on. Council

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53

EISCAT Scientific Association Annual Report 2011decided in the autumn meeting to convert the Kiruna and Sodankylä antennas to VHF use
such that tristatic operations would be possible again. The new needed hardware will be
installed summer 2012.
Common Programmes amounted to 43% (42%) of the operations. Special Programmes
amounted to 39% (37%) and other operations amounted to 18% (21%) of the total hours.
Scientists from France, Ukraine and Russia paid for the use of the facilities. Totally
391.5 hours (254.5 hours) were accounted on behalf of these countries. Both Ukraine andRussia have Affiliate agreements. The introduced Peer-Review Programme attracted several
applications and user groups from USA, Germany and UK were granted time, at no costs, on
the systems. Peer-Review time amounted to 117.5 accounted hours (new scheme for theyear).
The EISCAT_3D_2 preparatory phase continued as planned during the year. Two additional
EU Framework Programme 7 projects started 1 November 2011 with EISCAT being a Partner.
Both projects are related to data provision or procedures. Both will be running for about
three years and one project, ESPAS, “Near-Earth Space Data Infrastructure for e-Science” will
be a major undertaking with a total committed effort amounting to 612 kEUR over 41 workmonths. The second project, ENVRI, will not draw so much resource. EISCAT joined in also on
two further EU FP7 bids; COOPEUS and IMPRES. The outcome of these applications will beknown during spring 2012.
The “third antenna system on Svalbard with dual mode capabilities” development continued
during the year. The needed Norwegian concept plan was submitted to the local authorities
on Svalbard for consideration in the beginning of 2012. The plan will undergo a public
hearing and a formal response should be expected probably some time mid 2012.
Future operation and scientific development
During 2012, EISCAT will continue to support the wide range of existing and new
programmes proposed by the various Associates’ scientific communities, including thehosting of user-supplied equipment.
The now lacking mainland tristatic capabilities will be reintroduced in summer 2012 but thenusing the 224 MHz VHF frequency. Since this frequency is much different from UHF, newscience opportunities should arise. The monostatic UHF radar and the Svalbard Radar willcontinue to be available for users. Also the small VHF receive-only array in Kiruna is available
for use and the Heating system continues to be developed allowing new utilisation modes.
The work of the Council and its committees
The Council had two ordinary meetings under the leadership of the Chairperson, Dr. Tomas
Andersson. Council had its spring meeting at the Academy of Finland, in Helsinki. The
autumn meeting was held at the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) in Bonn,
Germany. The Council Advisory Group had two meetings under the leadership of the
Chairperson, Dr. Tomas Andersson. The spring meeting was held at the Research Council
Norway, Oslo, and the autumn meeting was held at the Swedish Research Council,
Stockholm. The Scientific Oversight Committee had two meetings during the year. The first

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54

EISCAT Scientific Association Annual Report 2011

meeting was held at the Jicamarca Radio Observatory, Peru with Prof. Ruiyuan Liu as
Chairperson. The chairpersonship then changed and the new Chairperson, Prof. Cesar La Hoz
lead the second meeting that was held in Qingdao, P. R. of China.
The German Associate, DFG, had a fixed five year agreement running from 2007 to end
2011. The departure meant that the annual operating budget for 2012 onwards had to be
adjusted to the new, without Germany, funding level. Council decided in 2010 that aproactive approach should be implemented involving preferably improved income but also,
if needed, adjustments to the cost level. As a way of improving the income, the Associatesagreed to inflationary compensate their annual contribution for 2012 and thus shifting theannual funding level to a somewhat higher level. To reduce re-occurring costs, the overall
regular staff level was reduced by two positions. With these measures, the cost budget for2012 and 2013 will be tolerable and 2014 can probably be balanced too if taking in use own
reserves.
Around 2014 - 2015 it is expected that the Associate work related to EISCAT_3D has arrived
at an updated Agreement structure and additional funding.
Budget development during the year
The 2011 operations ended below the operating target set for the year. Some of the systems
were underused by users. In addition the Svalbard Radar had a long down period caused byan unusual fault in the RF-feed.
EISCAT celebrated its 30-years anniversary in August and staff and a limited set of guests
celebrated the occasion on Svalbard by enjoying a boat cruise followed by a public seminar
and an anniversary dinner in the evening. Staff costs became lower than budgeted due to a
year-long vacancy on Svalbard which was deliberately kept vacant. Project staff was hired forthe ongoing projects. Project staff and costs are mostly refunded by the project financer, EU.
External users, particularly French scientists, continued to make use of the facilities. The
recovery in 2011 of SEK meant that Associate contributions, paid in national currencies,
became lower than budget, but since about half of the operations are in Norway and Finland(NOK and EUR), the overall currency effect was low in total.
The long-term budget plan
The long-term budget plan will be challenging but measures taken during the year createdan improved spend profile that will be explored during the coming few years.
The result for 2011 and the surplus handling
The year was balanced by transferring 1 898 kSEK to the Surplus fund.

-4-

55

EISCAT Scientific Association Annual Report

PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNTS
in thousands of Swedish Crowns
2011
23 1645 061
28 2252010
24 2483 219
27 467‐6 914‐4 448‐16 967‐1 203‐29 533‐6 243‐4 413‐17 854‐1 214‐29 724

Operating profit/loss‐1 308‐2 257

Interest income
Other financial income and cost
Own reserves and funds

230
740
1 033
2 002

52
‐41
949
960

694

‐1 297‐1 898
1 203
‐694

83
1 214
1 297

0

0

Note 1

Associate contributions
Other operating income

Note 2

Operation costs
Administration costs
Personnel costs
Depreciation of fixed assets

Note 3Note 4

Profit/loss after financial items
Appropriations
Transfer from funds invested

Note 5Note 6

Net profit/loss for the year

‐ ‐

56

EISCAT Scientific Association Annual Report

BALANCE SHEETin thousands of Swedish Crowns
2011

2010

3 194
832
1 622
5 648

3 557
748
1 664
5 968

2 435
2 202
24 16628 8033 050
1 129
24 71128 88934 45034 8585 648
17 28922 9375 968
17 31223 28011 3200
193
11 513

11 4250152
11 57834 45034 858Pledged assets

none

none

Contingent liabilities

none

none

ASSETS
Fixed assets
Tangible fixed assets
Buildings
Radar systems
Equipment and tools

Note 7

Current assets
Receivables
Prepayments and accrued income
Cash at bank and in hand

Note 8Note 9Total assets
CAPITAL AND LIABILITIESCapitalFunds invested
Funds held on reserve

Note 10Note 11

Current liabilities
Liabilities, trade
Provisions
Other liabilities

Note 12

Total capital and liabilities

‐ ‐

57

EISCAT Scientific Association Annual Report

STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWS
in thousands of Swedish Crowns
2011

2010

‐1 308
1 203‐2 257
1 214

230
695
45

52
‐57
15

615
‐1 073
‐64

821
‐489
6 608

Cash flow from operations

343

5 907

Investment activities
Investments in tangible assets

‐888

‐419

Cash flow from investment activities

‐888

‐419

Cash flow for the year

‐545

5 488

Liquid assets at the beginning of the year

24 71119 222Liquid assets at the end of the year

24 16624 711

Operating activities
Operating result before financial items
Transfer from funds invested
Interest received
Currency exchange rate changes
Extra ordinary income and cost
Increase/decrease of receivables
Increase/decrease of prepayments and accrued income
Increase/decrease of creditors and liabilities

‐ ‐

58

EISCAT Scientific Association Annual Report
NOTES
Note 1 Accounting principles

2011

2010

Salaries and emoluments paid to the Director

1 335

1 286

Other personnel, employed and provided
via site contracts

10 835

10 971Social security contributions amounted toof which for pension costs

3 888
1 923

4 106
2 086

Personnel costs in total

The accounting and valuation principles applied are consistent with theprovisions of the Swedish Annual Accounts Act and generally accepted
accounting principles (bokföringsnämnden allmänna råd ochvägledningar).
All amounts are in thousands of Swedish kronor (SEK) unless otherwise
stated.
Receivables
Receivables are stated at the amounts estimated to be received, basedon individual assessment.
Receivables and payables in foreign currencies
Receivables and payables in foreign currencies are valued at the closing
day rate. Where hedging measures have been used, such as forwarding
contracts, the agreed exchange rate is applied. Gains and losses relating
to operations are accounted for under other financial income and cost.
Bank accounts in foreign currencies
Bank balances in foreign currencies are valued at the closing day rate.
Fixed assets
Tangible fixed assets are stated at their original acquisition values after
deduction of depreciation according to plan. Assets are depreciatedsystematically over their estimated useful lives. The following periods ofdepreciation are applied: Buildings 5 ‐ 50 years, Radar systems 3 ‐ 20years and Equipment and tools 1 ‐ 5 years.
Note 2 Associate contributions
The Associates contributed to the operation during the year inaccordance with the agreement. The commitments are in local
currencies. The received contributions have been accounted in SEK.
2011
CRIRP (P. R. of China)
2 757
DFG (Germany)
1 614
NIPR (Japan)
1 639
RCN (Norway)
5 365
SA (Finland)
3 126
NERC (United Kingdom)
3 264
VR (Sweden)
5 400
23 164
Accumulated contributions status as of 2011‐12‐31
1976 ‐ 2011
Previous Associates
190 074
CRIRP (P. R. of China)
16 214
DFG (Germany)
192 094
NIPR (Japan)
70 311
RCN (Norway)
145 486
SA (Finland)
65 314
NERC (United Kingdom)
221 039
VR (Sweden)
118 829
1 019 360
Note 3 Personnel costs and average number of employees
The Association employs directly the Headquarters staff, currently about
seven positions, including the Director. The Headquarters is located in
Kiruna, Sweden. The personnel working at the Kiruna (Sweden),
Sodankylä (Finland), Svalbard and Tromsö (Norway) sites are not
employed by the Association. Instead, the personnel are provided via
site contracts by the Swedish Institute of Space Physics (Kiruna site
staff), Oulu University (Sodankylä staff) and Tromsö University (Tromsö
and Svalbard staff). The Association refunds all expenses related to theprovided staff, as well as an additional overhead.

‐ ‐

59

The Director, Dr. Esa Turunen, started his employment 2009‐01‐01. His
employment contract with Council was extended one further year and is
now for four years.
Of the pension costs, 344 kSEK (333 kSEK) relates to the Director. He
and all other directly employed staff are included in ITP like
occupational pension plans. For the personnel provided via site
contracts, the pension plans are handled by their respective employer.
The members of the board (EISCAT Council) and members ofcommittees, who represents Associates, do not receive remunerations
from the Association. Travel expenses in connection with Council andcommittee meetings are normally covered by the Associates. For theCouncil Advisory Group, the Association cover meeting and travel costs.
Salaries and emoluments and average number of staff per country
Finland
Salaries and emoluments
Average number of staff ‐ men and women

1 001
2+0

1 029
2+0

Norwayy ((includingg Svalbard))
Salaries and emoluments
Average number of staff ‐ men and women

5 996
10 + 0

5 818
10 + 0SwedenSalaries and emoluments
Average number of staff ‐ men and women

5 173
6+2

5 410
7+1

Members of the board and Directors at year‐end ‐ men and women
The board consist of delegations from every Associate country eachhaving a Delegate (formal member) and up to two Representatives.
Board members (EISCAT Council)
Directors

12 + 4
1+0

12 + 4
1+0

Capital Operating reserve
Budgeted transfer to the reserve
Transfer from the reserve
Investments made‐1 105
888
‐888

‐884
419
‐419

Spare parts reserve
Budgeted transfer to the reserve
Transfer from the reserve

‐18
159

‐28
109

Surplus fund
Budgeted transfer from the fund
Budgeted transfer to the fund

2 362
‐365

4 196
‐2 445Sum own reserves and funds

1 033

949

Note 4 Own reserves and funds
Transactions involving own reserves and funds.

EISCAT Scientific Association Annual Report
2011

2010

Note 5 Appropriations

Prepaid rents
Prepaid insurances
Accrued income, EISCAT_3D_2 projectAccrued income, ENVRI projectAccrued income, ESPAS project
Other items

The outcome for this year became a surplus relative to the budget
amounting to 1 898 kSEK. The amount has been transferred to thesurplus fund. The 2010 outcome resulted in a deficit (‐83 kSEK), which
was covered by a transfer from the surplus fund.
Note 6 Transfer from funds invested

2011

2010

100
507
1 221
14
19
342
2 202

92
462
139
0
0
437
1 129

24 1641
24 16624 7092
24 711

3 603
832
1 213
5 648

3 557
748
1 664
5 968

The depreciation cost is covered by funds from Capital ‐ funds invested
Note 9 Bank balances status
Note 7 Tangible fixed assets

NordeaCash in hand

Changes in tangible fixed assets during 2011.
Buildings
Opening acquisition value
Acquisitions during the year
Disposals during the year
Closing acquisition value

42 38246
042 42842 3748
042 382‐38 825‐409
0‐39 234‐38 531‐295
0‐38 825

3 194

3 557

244 542151
0
244 693244 48459
0
244 542‐243 795‐670‐243 861‐243 662‐132
0‐243 795

832

748

33 011691
237
33 45933 057352‐398
33 011‐31 347‐728
237‐31 838‐30 958‐787
398‐31 347

Closing residual value

1 622

1 664

Sum tangible fixed assets

5 648

5 968

Opening accumulated depreciation
Depreciations during the year
Disposals during the year
Closing accumulated depreciation
Closing residual value
Radar systems
Opening acquisition value
Acquisitions during the year
Disposals during the year
Closing acquisition value
Opening accumulated depreciation
Depreciations during the year
Disposals during the year
Closing accumulated depreciation
Closing residual value
Equipment and tools
Opening acquisition value
Acquisitions during the year
Disposals during the year
Closing acquisition value
Opening accumulated depreciation
Depreciations during the year
Disposals during the year
Closing accumulated depreciation

Note 10 Funds invested status
Buildings
Radar Systems
Equipment and Tools

Note 11 Funds held on reserve
Less investments were made but more spare parts than budgeted werebought. Both actions were budget neutral since the differences werecovered by reserve transfers. The surplus for this year (1 898 kSEK) was
added to the surplus fund. The other transfers were as budgeted.
Capital operating reserve
Equipment repair fundInvestment fundRestructuring reserve
Spare parts reserve
Surplus fund

2 051
754
7 971
4 101
149
2 262
17 289

1 834
754
7 971
4 101
290
2 362
17 312

Note 12 Liabilities, tradeThree projects financed by EU's European Commission through the
Framework Programme 7 scheme are ongoing. All projects work withprefinancing. The prefinancing is kept as liability until taken in use. The
prefinancing is released when a periodic report is made. Costs arising ina project are covered by build up of accrued income, which becomes apart of the periodic reporting. A periodic report is coupled with atfinancial claim. The ESPAS prefinancing was received only in 2012. The
guarantee fund is kept as contingency by the Commission for the
EISCAT_3D_2 project, which EISCAT is the Co‐ordinator of. The
guarantee fund will be released at the end of the project, 2014‐09‐30.
EISCAT_3D_2 guarantee fund, whole project
EISCAT_3D_2 prefinancing
ENVRI prefinancing
ESPAS prefinancing
Liabilities, trade

Note 8 Prepayments and accrued income
The main buildings and systems insurance for 2012 was paid in
December. Costs relating to the Antenna III feasibility work wereinvoiced in January 2012. Costs spent during 2011 in the now threeongoing EC projects will be claimed from EC when the periodic report isdue. The largest, the EISCAT_3D_2 project will have its first periodic
report in April 2012.

‐ ‐

60

2 003
5 069
539
0
3 709
11 320

2 023
5 120
0
0
4 282
11 425

EISCAT Scientific Association Annual Report 2011

Stockholm 2012-05-29

ｾｴ＠

Prof. Qing-sheng Dong

Dr. Tomas Andersson

ｴＰｦｊＭ｣ｾ＠
Dr. Hiroshi Miyaoka

Dr. Kati Sulonen

Or. Michael Schultzｚ［ＺｾＷＭ
Or. Esa Turunen
Director

Our audit report was issued on 2012- 00 -lOo

Authorised Public Accountant- 10 -

61pwc
Audit report
To the council of EISCAT Scientific
Association, Corporate Identity Number
897300-2549
Report on the annual accounts

Report on other legal and regulatory requirements

I have audited the annual accounts of EISCAT Scientific Association
for the yea r 2011.

In addition to my audit of the annual accounts, I have also examined
the administration of the council and the director of EISCATScientific Association for the 2011.

Responsibilities of the council and the director for theannual accounts

Responsibilities of the council and the director
The council and the director are responsible for the administration.

The council and the director are responsible for the preparation andfai r presentation of the annual accounts in accordance with theAnnual Accounts Act, and for such internal control as the council and
Auditor's responsibility
the director determine is necessal)' to enable the preparation ofannual accounts that are free from material misstatement, whether
My responsibility is to express an opinion with reasonable assurance
due to fraud or error.
on the administration based on my audit. I conducted the audit inaccordance with generally accepted auditing standards in Sweden.
As a basis for my opinion on the council and the director 's
administration, in addition to my audit of the annual accounts, I
My responsibility is to express an opinion on the annual accounts
examined significant decisions, actions taken and circumstances ofbased on my audit. I conducted my audit in accordance withthe association in order to determine whether any member of theInternational Standards on Auditing and generally accepted a uditing council or the director have undertaken any action or is guilty ofstandards in Sweden. Those standards require that I comply withnegligence which may entail a liability for damages. I also examinedethical requirements and plan and perform the audit to obtainwhether any council member or the director has, in any other way,reasonable assurance about whether the annual accounts are free
acted in contravention of the Annual Accounts Act or the statutes.
from material misstatement.
I believe that the audit evidence I have obtained is sufficient and
An audit involves performing procedures to obtain audit evidence
appropriate to provide a basis for my opinion.
about the amounts and disclosures in the annual accounts. The
procedures selected depend on the auditor's judgment, including theassessment of the risks of material misstatement of the annual
Opinionaccounts, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk
The council and the director have not acted in contravention of theassessments, the auditor considers internal control releva nt to thestatutes.
association's preparation and fair presentation of the annual
accounts, in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in
the circumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion
on the effectiveness of the association's internal control. An audit
also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies
used and the reasonableness of accounting estimates made by the
council and the director, as well as evaluating the overall
Annika Wedinpresentation of the annual accounts.
Authorized Public Accountant
I believe that the audit evidence I have obtained is sufficient andappropriate to provide a basis for my audit opinion.

Auditor's responsibility

ＷｉｩｬＡｾ＠

OpinionIn my opinion, the annual accounts have been prepared inaccordance with the Annual Accounts Act and presented fairly, in allmaterial respects. The financial position of the association as of 31
December 20 11 and of its financial performance and cash flows forthe year then ended is also in accordance with the Annual Accounts
Act. The statutoI)' administration report is consistent with the otherparts of the annual accounts.

62

63

Report 2011 of the EISCAT Scientific Associationc EISCAT Scientific Association
EISCAT Headquarters
Box 812, SE-981 28 Kiruna, Sweden
Scientific contributions: EISCAT Associates and staff

64

CAT SCEISCIATIONSO

NTIFIC AS
IE

The EISCAT Associates
December 2011

CRIRP

China Research Institute of Radiowave Propagation
China
www.crirp.ac.cn

DFG

Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
Germany
www.dfg.de

NERC

Natural Environment Research Council
United Kingdom
www.nerc.ac.uk

NFR

Norges forskningsråd
Norwaywww.forskningsradet.no

NIPR

National Institute of Polar ResearchJapanwww.nipr.ac.jp

SA

Suomen Akatemia
Finlandwww.aka.fi

STEL

Solar Terrestrial Environment Laboratory, NagoyaJapan
www.stelab.nagoya-u.ac.jp

VR

Vetenskapsrådet
Swedenwww.vr.seEISCAT Scientific Association
Headquarters
EISCAT Scientific Association
Box 812
SE-981 28 Kiruna, Sweden
Phone: +46 980 79150
Fax: +46 980 79159
www.eiscat.se

Sites
KirunaEISCAT Kiruna Site
Box 812
SE-981 28 Kiruna, Sweden
Phone: +46 980 79136
Fax: +46 980 29276

Longyearbyen
EISCAT Svalbard Radar
Postboks 432
N-9171 Longyearbyen, Svalbard
Phone: +47 790 21236
Fax: +47 790 21751

Sodankylä
EISCAT Sodankylä Site
Tähteläntie 54B
FIN-99600 Sodankylä, Finland
Phone: +358 16 619880
Fax: +358 16 610375

Tromsø
EISCAT Tromsø Site
Ramfjordmoen
N-9027 Ramfjordbotn, Norway
Phone: +47 776 20730
Fax: +47 776 20740